


The Dream Stand

by squiccoon



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:42:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 32,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27206815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squiccoon/pseuds/squiccoon
Summary: A boy with a mask sits alone at a stand.His stand is filled with miniature dolls, all of which he has named 'Dream'.One day, another boy approaches him and asks why he sells them.From there, a friendship is born.This is a fanfic inspired by an art piece by vocalol on Instagram. Please check them out!I hope you enjoy this story and have a great day!
Comments: 51
Kudos: 144





	1. One Dream for All

"What's he doing over there?"

"I don't know. He's kinda weird."

"Look at all those dolls he has! They're all exactly the same! Talk about creepy."

"Shh! You don't want him to hear us, do you?!"

"Too late! He's looking our way! Run!"

As the two kids ran away, Dream watched them from behind his mask. He watched until they disappeared from view then returned to the white doll he held in his hand, its simple smile looking up at him. Smiling in return, he continued to sew up the doll's side before finishing it off with a knot. After inspecting for any loose thread, he settled the doll down next to the many other dolls on his stand—each and every one of them exactly the same—before reaching beneath the bench for more white fabric. 

Beginning the same process of drawing and cutting out the shape of his dolls, he wondered why all the other kids laughed and made fun of him for his stand. He knew of other kids who would run a lemonade stand and yet they don't get bullied for it. So why was it only him?

And it wasn't just kids who'd make fun of him. The adults who would walk by his stand on their way home from work would give him a funny look, sometimes scoffing or even showing looks of concern. It didn't make sense. Not to him at least.

"Is there something I don't understand?" Dream asked himself, putting down the scissors and picking up one of his dolls. "Why doesn't anybody like you?"

"Like what?"

Dream jumped at the sound of somebody talking and turned to see a boy. He looked about to be the same age as him, if not a bit younger, and he wore a bandanna around his head. He wore a white shirt with a flame in the middle with a black, long-sleeve shirt underneath, and black tracksuit pants. Unsure of what to make of him, Dream was cautious of how bright his smile was and the fire in his eyes.

Debating whether he should stay silent or not, the boy took a few steps closer until he was right in front of the stand and picked up one of the dolls. "Were you talking to these things? Kinda weird if you ask me."

"It's not weird! And they're not things!"

"Oh? Then what are they?"

"They're Dreams."

The boy laughed. "Dreams? What kind of name is that?"

"It's... It's my name," Dream said, looking down at the 'Dream' in his hands. "My name is Dream."

Switching between the Dream in his hand and the Dream sitting before him, the boy smiled broadly and held his hand out. "Nice to meet you, Dream! My name is Sapnap!"

"Huh?"

"I said, my name is Sapnap! Hey, you know how to shake hands, right?" Grabbing Dream's hand, Sapnap clasped it in his own and shook it. When they pulled apart, he sheepishly scratched the back of his head and said, "Sorry about before. I didn't mean to make it sound rude or anything. I just thought it was a bit of an odd name."

"You say that, but your name is Sapnap."

"Touché, but I'm not the one going around naming every doll 'Sapnap', am I?" Chuckling, Sapnap peered over the bench and got really close to Dream's face who in turn moved backwards. "Why do you wear that mask? Got something on your face that you don't want others to see?"

"No!" Dream shook his head and moved further back out of Sapnap's reach. "I just don't like showing my face to people. It's... weird."

"How so?"

"It just is." He held firmly onto his mask in case his new 'friend' tried to tear it off. "You're asking a lot of questions, you know."

"I'm just curious. You're not exactly the most normal person here."

"And neither are you."

"Hey, that hurts my feelings~" He pretended to be injured, draping himself across the stand and clutching at his chest. Sapnap only stopped his 'crying' when Dream began to laugh. Smiling, he looked around the stand again and whistled. "There's a lot of Dreams here. Did you make them all yourself?"

"Yep! They're all mine!"

"Wow, impressive..." Sapnap turned each of the dolls over and squished them a little. "It looks so simple and cute."

"You think so?"

"Yep." As he went through more of the dolls, he noticed one sitting in the back—separate from the rest—with a gold crown on its head. "Hey, what's with that one?"

"Hm? This one? Oh, this one is for a friend. He always said that he wanted to be a king, so I made him a Dream and gave him a little crown." Dream smiled fondly at the doll, thankful that he was wearing a mask to cover the tears that threatened to fall down his face. "Unfortunately, I wasn't able to give it to him in time, so now I keep it with me."

"Uh-huh. Is that why you call them Dreams?"

Dream nodded. "I thought that if you could keep your dreams as close to you as possible, then maybe one day it'd come true. That's when I began making these Dreams and open up a stand. If anybody had a dream they wanted to come true, then they could buy one and dress it up like their dream."

"And that's why that one has a crown because your friend wanted to be a king?"

"Mhm."

Looking closer at the 'King' Dream, Sapnap picked up a plain one and reached into his pocket. "Can I buy one?"

"You want to buy one?"

"Of course. It seems like a pretty cool idea and I wouldn't mind having this little guy around." Pulling out a $5 note, he looked around the stand again before asking, "How much do one of these cost?"

"They usually cost $1, but for you it's $100."

"What?!"

"And an arm and a leg."

"Hey, I'll gladly give you my arm and my leg, but there's no way I can pay you $100!"

"Do you have anything else you can give?"

"DREAM!"

"Okay, okay!" Dream chuckled. "Since I'm feeling generous, you only have to pay the low, low cost of nothing. Happy now?"

"Yes, very." Stuffing the money back into his pocket, Sapnap walked around the stand and searched beneath the bench. "Got any scissors, I could borrow?"

"Here you go."

"Thanks." Taking the scissors, he searched through his other pocket and pulled out an identical bandanna strip. Measuring the length of it, he cut off one end and tied it around his little Dream. "There! Now it looks just like me!"

"Except more handsome."

"Wow, Dream. I thought we were friends."

"That was never established."

"Yes, it was. When we shook hands was when we became friends."

"If I remember correctly, I was forced to shake hands with you."

"Would you rather we weren't friends?"

"No."

"Then shut up. Now, time to make yours."

"Mine?"

"Yeah, yours. Don't you have a dream you want to come true?"

"I-I do. But first of all, what was your dream?"

"My dream? Well, since your friend said that he wanted to become a king, I thought why not become a superhero?"

"A superhero? Really?" Dream giggled as he imagined Sapnap in Superman's suit.

"Yes, really! Dude, imagine being able to fly and do things that normal people can't! I could be super strong too and do incredible things!"

"Ahahaha! I feel like becoming a king is a lot easier than becoming a superhero."

"You said that if I kept this little guy close to me then one day it'll come true. You're not scamming me, are you?"

"Of course not!"

"Good. Since I've told you my dream, it's your turn to tell me yours." Sapnap placed a doll in front of Dream and pointed at it. "What's your dream, Dream?"

"My dream," he began as he stared down at the doll, "is to make other people's dreams come true."


	2. Dream of Many Colours

A week had gone by since Dream met Sapnap. Since then, Sapnap always made the effort to come visit him and wile the hours away talking about this and that, anything and everything. His visits never failed to brighten Dream's day and he finds himself smiling more and more behind the mask. Maybe one day he'll feel comfortable enough to not wear the mask around Sapnap...

"So yeah, I was being chased by these wolves in the middle of nowhere and I kid you not! Just as they were about to attack me, a great, big bear came out of nowhere and protected me!"

"No, that can't be true! Why would a bear protect _you_?!"

"I don't know! I could hardly believe it myself when it happened!" Running a hand through his hair, Sapnap grinned wildly. "Maybe it thought I was a cub or something?"

"Bahahaha! As if!" Dream shook in his chair, laughing uncontrollably. "Nah, I don't believe any of that happened!"

"Really? Well, you're half correct."

"Half correct? How can I be half correct?"

"Everything was a lie except for the wolves."

"WHAT?!"

As Dream was going to ask more about Sapnap's wild wolf chase, Sapnap looked at his phone and pulled a face. "Damn it! Sorry, Dream, but I've gotta go! I have somewhere I need to be. I'll talk more with you tomorrow, same as always!"

"Um, alright. See you tomorrow!"

Dream watched as his best friend left, the small Dream he fashioned to look like himself hanging on his pocket chain. It made him happy that his friend was carrying his Dream everywhere, but it also raised the question; did he carry it everywhere or just when he's around him? He didn't want to ask because it seemed rude to do so, but he was curious about it. Dream hardly left his stand apart from to go back home and the only times he saw Sapnap was when he'd come to his stand, so it's possible that Sapnap only brought it when he visited. 

But he trusts him. Why else would he come everyday to talk and hang out? And it's not like he had any say in what Sapnap could or couldn't do with his Dream. But it made him happy knowing that Sapnap still carried it around...

Which was more than he could say for the next few days.

Everyday without fail, Sapnap would check his phone and then leave abruptly in the middle of their conversation. He didn't so much as explain where he was going or what he was doing. He'd just say 'goodbye' and 'talk to you tomorrow' then leave. Even when Dream asked what he was doing, he'd only respond with 'oh, I had somewhere I needed to be' or 'don't worry about it'. 

But Dream did worry about it. Sapnap was his first and only friend in this new neighbourhood and he didn't want to lose him. He was scared that maybe he had done something wrong to push his friend away. He was scared that Sapnap didn't like him anymore. He was scared that Sapnap would leave him and move far, far away.

Just like _he_ did. 

Shaking his head, Dream busied himself with making more dolls. He needed to keep busy. He needed to not think those thoughts. He needed to believe that his friend would come back. He hoped he would anyway.

More days passed by and Sapnap continued to leave early. It had come to a point that Dream was more upset about seeing Sapnap than he was to see him go. He still laughed and joked with the brunet, but he did wonder if Sapnap could sense his pain whenever he did so. Because it hurt. It hurt a lot.

That is, until Sapnap came with another boy.

"Hey, Dream! I've got someone I want you to meet!"

Looking up from his work, Dream was met with a boy who looked to be slightly older than him. He wore a blue shirt with the 'Error 404' sign in the middle of a red outlined box, blue pants and overly big, white sunglasses that barely fit on his face. He had brown hair that matched his eyes as he pushed his glasses on top of his head, face deadpan. 

"Wow, you two are getting along great," Sapnap commented as he watched his two friends stare at each other. "Like a house on fire."

"Shut up, Sapnap," the older boy said with a slight British accent. His lips twitching slightly into a smile as he addressed his friend. "You can't expect us to like each other immediately, do you?"

"Well, I expected you guys to _talk_ at least!"

"Without introductions?"

Groaning, Sapnap pointed to the other boy. "Dream, this is George, aka "GeorgeNotFound". The only thing you need to know about him is that he's British."

"Sapnap!"

"And, George, this is Dream. He wears a mask."

"Really?" Dream interjected. "That's all you have to say about me?"

"Do you have any other defining feature that I'm unaware of?"

"What about my naturally good looks and charming personality?"

"Bruh, had I known you had them I would not have let you meet George. I'd have kept you to myself."

"What does this have to do with me meeting him?!" George shouted.

"What, you don't think he's cute?"

"Absolutely not!"

"AbSoLuTelY nOt!" Sapnap mimicked, earning a barrage of playful hits from George. A chuckle broke up their 'fight' and their attention was drawn to Dream who sat laughing in his chair. "Nice to see someone is happy again. Hey, Dream, I just wanted to apologise for before. The only reason why I didn't tell you where I was going was because I really wanted you to meet George, but this loser was being such a baby and complaining how he didn't want to meet new people—"

"That's not true!" George covered Sapnap's mouth with his hands, but quickly pulled them away and wiped them on his clothes. "Ew! Sapnap! Why would you lick me?!"

"— _and_ he was scared because of you!"

Dream tilted his head in confusion. "Because of me?" 

"Okay, look. I didn't mean that in a bad way, Dream. You should've heard his description of you!"

"All I said was that he wore a mask with a smiley face on it."

"Yeah, but in the most creepy way possible! 'Oh, he sits at this small stand making these little dolls with tiny faces on them. They're all the exact same and they have the same smile as the one on his mask. And he _never_ takes it off!' How do you expect me to NOT be scared?!"

"Does he LOOK scary to you?!"

"NO! BUT THE WAY YOU PUT IT MADE HIM SEEM SCARY!"

"BUT HE'S NOT SCARY, IS HE?!"

"GUYS!" Dream shouted, standing up from his chair. "Stop fighting, please! It's not George's fault that I'm scary and it's not Sapnap's fault either!"

"And before you say it's your fault, IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT!" Coming around to the other side of the stand, Sapnap pulled him into a side hug and beckoned George to join in. "Sure, I said they were creepy at first and so did George, but that doesn't mean they are."

"No, it makes them weird and unsightly."

"No! That's not what we're saying at all! It's your thing! Like, your brand! Dream, I bet one day they're going to become iconic and well-known among everyone."

"Not in a bad way though," George said, picking a Dream up and looking at its tiny smile. "Provided you don't have Sapnap in charge of your advertising campaign, I'm sure plenty of people will want one of these."

"Really?"

"Mhm, starting with me! I want this one!" He exclaimed as he showed Sapnap and Dream the doll. "Can I have this one?"

Dream smiled widely and nodded vigorously. "Yes! Yes, you can! Wait, do you know what to do with it?"

"Yeah, Sapnap told me all about your dolls and what they're for."

"And yet, he was still scared of you..."

"Shut up!" He scowled at Sapnap while cradling the Dream in his hands. "You know, upon taking a closer look at them, they are really cute."

Dream smiled, happy at having another satisfied customer, when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see Sapnap holding some blue fabric and a tiny pair of makeshift glasses similar to George's. "Hey, do you think you could make a Dream but with this?"

"Yes, but why?"

"You'll see once you've given it to him. I'll distract him while you make it, okay?"

While Sapnap took George's attention away from Dream, he immediately got to work making the blue Dream Sapnap wanted him to make. He was surprised that Sapnap was able to find a fabric similar to the ones he had been using, but shrugged it off as him having spent too much time at his stand. One thing he will admit though is that it was quite refreshing to see a Dream in a different colour. Maybe he ought to do them in other varieties...

"Finished!" He shouted, holding the blue Dream out to George. "Oh, and here's the glasses for it too! They're just like yours!"

When was the last time Dream had seen someone so happy? The unequivocal kind of happiness that leaves you tearing up, filled with inexplicable joy and resonates within your core. If Dream had to guess, it was probably before he set up the Dream Stand and before he moved houses—before he saw his friend go. 

Dream was forcefully brought back from his despondent state when George lunged forward and hugged him, positively beaming. "Thank you so much, Dream! This is the best gift ever!"

Trapped in his tight bear-hug, Dream looked to Sapnap for help, but he simply grinned while giving a thumbs-up. When it didn't seem like George was going to move anytime soon, Sapnap finally came to Dream's rescue and pulled him back. "Dude, chill out! You were suffocating the poor man."

"Th-that's fine," Dream choked out. "I'm sure he's just very happy to receive a blue Dream."

"I'm sorry, Dream! I didn't mean to accidentally stop you from breathing!"

Sapnap scoffed. "So what you're saying is that you would do it on purpose?"

"NO!" George retorted. "Look, all I'm saying is that you doing this for me, Dream, is the best thing ever! I doubt you would have done this without Sapnap's help, but thank you so very much. I mean it."

"Don't I get a thank you too?"

"I don't know if you deserve one after everything you've put me through today."

"George!"

As the two began bickering again, Dream was left more confused than ever. With no end in sight of their fighting, he stepped between them and asked, "Sorry, but why is it the best thing ever? It's blue, I get that, but it's not that different to any of my other ones apart from the glasses."

Tearing himself away from Sapnap, George smiled before setting down his Dream next to all the others. "Because it's my favourite colour. Please don't think this a stupid dream, but my dream is to be able to see colour."

"See colour? What do you mean?"

"I'm colourblind," George replied. "Your jumper is...green, right? Or is it yellow?"

"It's green."

"Right. Well, to me, it's yellow or at least that's how I perceive it. It's very hard to distinguish between the two actually. I can see some colours, but not all which is why my favourite colour is blue. Compared to everything else, it's the only colour that I think is the coolest."

"And that's why Sapnap wanted me to make a blue Dream? Because it's one of the colours you can see?" After George nodded, Dream wore a big smile on his face and leapt from his chair to hug him. "Then I hope your dream comes true! I'd love to be there to see you see colour!"

"Thanks, Dream," he said, returning the hug. "That means a lot to me."


	3. Dream a Million Dreams

Dream was the happiest he had ever been. He had two new best friends both of which would come to visit him every single day and hang out. Moving neighbourhoods was never easy especially when it came to making new friends, so he was extremely thankful that Sapnap and George were willing to be friends with him. Despite his confidence and earlier assurance of showing Sapnap his face, he continued to hide behind the mask. He still felt a bit anxious whenever he adjusted his mask in front of them, scared they might just snap and tear it off, but they respected his boundaries and would look away whenever he did so. 

After all, who would want to see his messed up face?

It was a nice, sunny day when Dream woke up. As usual, he ate his breakfast and packed his bag with food for the day, taking extra to share with George and Sapnap. When he arrived at his stand, he bundled the bag beneath the bench and got to work making more Dreams. It had occurred to him that the ones he'd leave out in the open when he left to go home would sometimes disappear, but he's clueless to where they end up. He hopes that maybe whoever was taking them was using them for good intentions and perhaps even assigning each of them a dream, but it had also occurred to him that he never made a sign for his stand to explain what to do with his Dreams. He kind of assumed that whoever wanted one would simply ask him for them and not steal them.

Still, he hopes whoever has them is happy.

The day, although nice and sunny, was also very hot and Dream soon found himself sweating beneath his mask and jumper. Reaching into his bag for a water bottle, he heard something rustle in the bushes behind him and turned around to investigate. Alas, there was nothing there. There was no wind that day so something had to have made the bushes rustle, but upon closer inspection there really was nothing there.

A little confused, Dream returned to his seat and drank from his water bottle, also pulling out a box of muffins he had found in his pantry. He was quite lucky because there was one for each of his friends and for himself, so he happily munched away while planning in his head the design for a sign; simple, basic and straight to the point.

He froze in his chair when he heard more rustling behind him. Staying very still, he waited to hear the bushes rustle again before checking the cause of it. When he saw nothing, Dream was beyond perplexed and took a step further to investigate the bushes nearby, although nothing could have moved that quickly in the short time he had been searching.

His efforts for naught, Dream returned to his stand to find his half-eaten muffin missing alongside a Dream doll. Scratching his head, he looked around for an answer he knew he wouldn't find before sitting down. Perhaps the heat had gotten to him, but he was fairly certain he had heard something move and he hadn't finished his muffin so quickly.

This wasn't the first time this happened either. He remembered quite vividly something similar happened in his first town where a 'monster' would come in the night to steal people's food and kidnap children. It was an old tale that people would tell to scare each other, so it wasn't like anyone believed it. 

But Dream knew the truth and so did his friend after they themselves had encountered the beast or what can only be assumed as one. In actuality, the creature was quite pitiful with its small bat-like wings, skin as dark as night and tearful white eyes. One look at the poor creature would have anyone questioning whether it really was a monster or not. However, when Dream and his friend gathered the confidence to approach the 'monster', it suddenly attacked and slashed Dream's face with its sharp claws. After that, the creature disappeared with his friend tailing behind only to return moments later with their parents.

To this day, Dream could still feel the stinging pain he had felt when those claws dug into his skin, scarring his face, and the ache in his chest as he watched his friend run away. Even though he knew he'd come back (which he did), it caught him off guard that his friend would rather pursue the unknown creature instead of helping his friend.

Solemnly, he leant back in his chair and checked for anyone nearby before shutting his eyes. Happy that no one was around, Dream cautiously pulled down his hood and unfastened the band of his mask, letting it slip into his hand then resting it on his chest. His skin cooled in the open air, no longer trapped in the stifling heat beneath the mask, and he sighed in contentment. Silence surrounded him as he mindlessly drummed his fingers against his mask, listening carefully for anyone who might be walking by. He half expected to hear something like footsteps or—if it were his friends—his name being called out, but he never expected someone to be standing right above him.

"Oh my goodness, you poor thing! What happened to you? Are you awake? Are you okay?"

"Wha—?!" Dream's eyes shot open as he was met face-to-face with a pair of white eyes staring down at him. Falling out of his chair, he tumbled to the side and placed his mask over his face, hands shaking. As he struggled to put it back on, he got a better look at the person who spooked him, gasping in shock at what he saw. "You.... You're that creature!"

"You remember me?!" It asked. An open-mouth smile formed on its face, revealing striking white teeth and fangs. "I'm so happy! You actually remember who I am!"

As the creature jumped on the spot, its thin tail swishing and swaying in excitement, Dream slowly got to his feet and made his way to the other side of the stand. Retrieving the scissors on his bench for protection, he hid it on his person before saying, "Y-yeah, I remember you. You're the creature we found in the forest back in my old town. You're also the one who went around and stole food from people."

"Yup, yup!" The creature eagerly nodded, too distracted by its 'happy' memories to notice Dream's scissors. "But I only stole food because I was hungry. You see, I don't know how to go about finding my own food and everything I found in that forest was inedible. Yucky!"

"Yucky?" Dream raised an eyebrow to its unusual choice of words and behaviour. Compared to him, it was only slightly shorter and even took on the form of a human boy save for its skin, tail, eyes and **claws**. "Wh-why are you here?! You should still be at that town! Unless you're here to finish me off!"

The creature tilted its head in confusion. "Finish you off? What do you mean?"

"Don't you remember? You're the one who scratched my face and gave me these scars!"

"What....WHAT?! I DID THAT?!" The creature screeched, curling its tail around itself in shock. "I'M SO SORRY! I DIDN'T MEAN TO DO THAT! I DIDN'T THINK I ACTUALLY HIT YOU ALTHOUGH THAT WOULD EXPLAIN WHY THERE WAS BLOOD ON MY HANDS BUT AAAHHHHHH I'M SO SORRY!!!!!!"

Dream could only watch as the creature bawled its eyes out, white tears streaming down its face. He wasn't sure on what he should do in that moment. The reasonable choice would be to leave and go back home or to use this opportunity to kill it, but could he do that? The poor thing was crying, crying for him no less! Leaving would just be...wrong.

"Hey! There's no need to cry, okay? I understand now that you didn't mean to attack me. I'm sure that we were pretty intimidating ourselves when we first met you, weren't we?"

Sniffling, the creature nodded. "Y...yeah. Y-you guys scared me when you found my home. I... I thought I was going to die."

"Die? By a couple of kids?" He couldn't suppress the laugh that escaped him, reaching beneath his mask to wipe a tear away. When he saw the creature look up at him, he coughed and said, "I doubt we could've beaten you. We had no intentions of hurting you and to be fair, you did hit me pretty hard—"

"I DID?!" 

Dream could sense another wave of tears about to come from the creature and rushed to its side, giving it a hug of affirmation. "DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT! That was a long time ago, so you don't need to worry about it! Please don't cry, okay?"

It sat frozen in his hug, waiting for some time before nodding. "O-okay. I won't cry."

Smiling, Dream moved away and looked the creature in the eye. "Good. Now what's your name? Do you have one?"

It nodded again, smiling brightly at his friendly demeanour. "My name is BadBoyHalo! It's nice to meet you!"

"Hello, BadBoyHalo! My name is Dream!" Shaking hands, he noticed how surprised BadBoyHalo was with the gesture. "Bad... I hope you don't mind me calling you that. But aside from me, have you ever interacted with another human being before?"

Bad shook his head vigorously (maybe a bit too ecstatically). "Nope! You and your friend were the first I've ever encountered properly! And I don't mind you calling me Bad. It's probably easier for you, isn't it?"

"Uh-huh... Well, what brings you here? I thought you would've stayed at that other town."

"I followed you here!" He replied, tail swishing once more and curling around Dream's arm. "I felt bad after scaring you and your friend and decided to stay near you. I didn't think I had hurt you even after you began wearing that mask, but I guess I was wrong."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"But then your friend disappeared and it was just you. I got sad when he left. I thought you two would be together forever!" Dream could feel Bad's tail constrict itself around his arm and tugged lightly to let him know it was getting too tight. "Oops! Sorry about that. But after that happened, you left and I didn't know what to do! So I followed you here and I hope you don't mind, but I've been living in your backyard for the past few months..."

"I'm surprised I never suspected you living here. You've been really quiet up until today."

"Yeah, yeah! I've been super stealthy this whole time! But—" he looked to the two muffins left in their box sitting on the bench—"I suddenly got hungry and I saw that you were eating something, so I took it and ate it. Sorry."

"So it was you that ate my muffin?"

"Is that what they're called? Muffins?"

"Er, yes. Muffins."

"Muffins... Muffins! Muffin, muffin, muffin!" Bad giggled to himself, an act that Dream thought was rather cute. "Not only are they delicious, but they have an equally amazing and fun name! Muffins!"

"Would you like another?" Dream asked, already grabbing one from the box. "They're choc-chip, in case you didn't know, so I don't know if that would upset your stomach."

"Nope! They taste good! I don't feel sick!" Taking the muffin from Dream, he hummed in delight as he took a bite. "Ahhh~ They're so good!"

Thinking back to his missing muffin reminded Dream of his missing dolls. Wondering if they were somehow connected, Dream asked, "Bad, do you know what these are?"

"Hm?" Crumbs littered Bad's mouth, Dream finding it difficult to keep a straight face at his childish behaviour. "Oh, those? Yeah, I know what they are. I see you make them everyday."

"You do? Then would you perhaps know who's been taking them? Lately, some of them have been disappearing from my stand and considering I haven't had a customer since...ever, I assume someone's been taking them in the night."

They stood in silence as Dream waited for Bad to respond. He also noticed that Bad had stopped scoffing down his muffin, choosing instead to stare at it in deep thought. Suddenly, he burst out crying. "I'm sorry, Dream!!! I didn't think you'd notice if one or two of them were gone! It's just that... I thought they were so cute and soft and I wanted to play with them!"

As he carried on spurting out apologies, Dream smiled earnestly and gave Bad another hug, aware of Bad's tail instantly wrapping around him too. "How many times have I told you not to cry? Look, I'm not mad at you. In fact, I'm happy that you liked my dolls."

"You are?"

"Yep! But there's one thing you should know about those dolls."

Bad gasped and stared wide-eyed at Dream. "Are they cursed dolls?!"

"What? No! No, no, no!" Picking one up, he placed it in Bad's hand and explained, "These are Dreams. What you do with them is tell it your dream and keep it close to you, and one day, your dream will come true!"

"Really?!" Suddenly, wings sprouted out of his back and spread out, blocking the path they stood on. "Hehe, sorry. Got a bit excited. But is that true? I can wish for anything and it'll come true?"

"That's what I've been told," Dream replied. "Go on. Tell it your dream."

"My dream..." Every now and then, he ruffled his wings and lashed his tail back and forth. His eyes were shut tight before snapping open and letting out a small gasp. "Can I dream for a million muffins?! Is that a thing I can do?!"

"A million muffins?" In his head, Dream pictured a small Bad standing above a mountain of muffins and chuckled to himself. "Sure! Why not? If that's your dream then so be it!"

"Yay! One million muffins! One million muffins!" Bad spun around on the spot, the small Dream held high above his head, as he chanted. "When I get a million muffins, Dream, I want you to join me in eating them! It's gonna be sooooo good!"

"Ahaha, I'm pretty sure I'll get a stomach ache from eating that many muffins, Bad."

"But that's why we're _both_ eating them! And I don't get sick that easily. I could probably eat a million muffins all by myself!"

"Is that so?" He continued to watch Bad spin and hop on the spot, happy to watch him until a rather pressing matter entered his mind. "Oh no. How am I going to explain you to my friends?!"

"Friends?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2 updates because I realised that I should probably keep this up to pace with Wattpad (yes, I've published there too), so yeah. Hope you're enjoying the story so far and are having fun learning everybody's dreams!


	4. A Bejeweled Dream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a longer chapter this time. Enjoy!

Dream put his worry aside as he rushed between his house and the stand to find a seat for Bad. He didn't want to seem like a bad host (or friend) to him, after all. While he was doing that Bad was busy eating the last muffin, humming in delight with each bite. Occasionally, Dream would hear Bad laugh or sing some little ditty as he searched inside his house and he smiled at his carefree nature. However, at one point he heard Bad talking which eventually grew to exasperated shouts, but whenever Dream looked out the window he'd see nobody but Bad sitting by himself.

Once he had found a suitable chair for his friend to sit on, he made his way outside and placed it beside his chair. "Here you go, Bad! A seat for you."

"Ooh! My very own seat!" Bad fluttered his wings slightly as he sat down, wriggling his butt to get comfortable. His tail swayed to the side and wrapped around the arm and leg of the chair, his wings folding back against his back. "Thank you, Dream! It's perfect!"

"No worries," he replied, sitting in the seat Bad had sat in before. To his surprise, it wasn't warm like he expected after Bad had sat in it for so long. Upon reflection, he remembered when he had hugged Bad that he felt no warmth from him. "Hey, Bad, do you mind if I hold your hand for a moment?"

"Okay!" Without hesitation, Bad grabbed onto Dream's hand and smiled brightly. "Friends do this, don't they? They hold hands and do the wrappy thing with their arms, right?"

"The wrappy thing? Oh, you mean a hug?"

"Yeah, that! I think..."

"Then yeah, friends do that." Dream reverted his attention back to Bad's hand, feeling slightly intimidated by his claws. But it was just as he thought; no warmth. "Bad, what are you? Like, I'm human and so are my friends, but what about you?"

"Hm...." Bad scrunched up his face, thinking hard about his answer. "I'm not exactly too sure. I don't remember much when I was younger, but before I came here and before I met you it was really hot and everything was orange and red!"

_So he's a demon?_ Dream thought, wondering if what Bad was describing was Hell. "Do you know what a demon is, Bad? Have you ever heard of one before?"

Bad thought hard again, tilting his head back and forth then shaking violently. "Nope! Never heard of it before. What is it?"

Pulling out his phone, Dream searched up a picture of a demon and showed Bad. "This is a demon. And here's some other variations too. They... look similar to you, don't they?"

Bad's eyes widened and he gasped in shock. "B-b-b-but they're scary! They look scary! I'm not scary, am I? Dream! Am I scary to you?!"

"Wha—no! No, you're not scary at all! That's kinda why I wanted to ask what you were because you look like a demon but you don't act like one. It's like you're a demon and an angel fused together."

"What's an angel?"

After searching up images of angels, Bad let out a happy squeak. "They're beautiful and so pretty! Do you really think I'm like that, Dream? Gosh, I wish I could be like that."

Dream didn't know how to respond as he tried to understand what exactly Bad was. While he thought about it he let Bad take his phone and ogle at the angels, oblivious to him directing the phone's screen to the bush behind him. Distracted by his own thoughts, he didn't hear the fast approaching of feet and neither did Bad until it was too late. A battle cry startled both boys from their dreamland as Sapnap and George threw themselves at Bad, tackling him and his chair to the ground.

"Don't worry, Dream! We'll protect you!" Sapnap cried.

"Hey! Let go of me! OW!"

George gripped Bad's arms roughly, keeping it close to the ground. "Shut up, demon! Dream, run away! We've got it pinned!"

Irritation quickly built up within Dream as he watched the chaos unfold before him. Rushing to his friend's aid, he ripped Sapnap and George off of Bad and held them by their shirts. "GEORGE! SAPNAP! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!"

"OI! WHAT DO YOU MEAN?! WE'RE TRYING TO SAVE YOU!" George struggled in Dream's tight hold, pushing and pulling at his arm. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING WITH A DEMON?!"

"YEAH, DREAM! WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING WITH THIS THING?!"

"AHHHHH! WHY IS EVERYBODY YELLING?!" All heads turned to Bad lying on the ground with his hand on his ears. Visible white tears ran down his face as he rolled into a fetal position, sniffling. "Why are you guys being so loud? Why did you guys hurt me? I never hurt you..."

Huffing, Dream let go of Sapnap's and George's collars letting them fall face-first onto the ground. "Sorry, Bad. I didn't want to introduce you to these guys like this but I have no choice. Bad... these two idiots are my friends Sapnap and George."

"Th-they're your friends?" Bad looked at them as they stared wide-eyed back. "I don't think I like them very much."

"That's understandable." Turning to the pair of idiots on the ground, he nudged them lightly with his foot and indicated to Bad. "George, Sapnap, this is my friend Bad. Apologise to him."

George gave Dream a weird look while Sapnap scoffed. "You're seriously expecting us to say sorry to that thing—"

"Apologise. Now."

With one look between them, Sapnap and George turned to face Bad who had his arms crossed in expectation, tail lashing back and forth. Simultaneously, they said sorry and ducked their heads in shame. Bad huffed, turning his face away but watched from the corner of his eyes before pouncing on them both and hugging them. "I forgive you! I'm sorry that I looked scary to you! But it's nice to meet you, Sapnap and George! Let's be friends, okay?"

"Uh, sure..." George replied, his voice somewhat shaking. "L-let's be friends..."

"Yeah, whatever. You're awfully chummy for a demon."

"I'M NOT A DEMON!" His hair stood on end and his tail lashed wilder than ever, but he wasn't angry. In fact, more tears were visible as they leaked from his eyes and fell to the ground. "I'm not a demon. Don't call me a demon."

About to pursue the topic further, Sapnap was cut short by Dream who simply pulled him back and shook his head. "I'll explain later. For now, let's get to know each other better."

In collective agreement, the four boys set their chairs up (Sapnap's and George's chairs were kept beside Dream's front door) and began chattering like old friends. Dream explained when he first met Bad and everything that happened since then; Bad smiled all the while whereas Sapnap and George looked on in horror. After telling how he met Sapnap and George, Bad made a little chirping noise then pulled out his Dream.

"So we all have Dreams? That's so cool! George, George! Can I see your Dream? And Sapnap's too! I want to see how different they are!"

"Okay, uh..." George rummaged through his pockets before pulling out his blue Dream. "This is it. I love it so much because it's blue."

"Here's mine," Sapnap said, holding out his Dream. "It's got a bandanna like me and a flame in the middle too." Turning to Dream, he smiled apologetically. "I hope you don't mind me drawing on it. I just thought I'd make it a bit more personal."

Dream chuckled and waved his hand dismissively. "Go ahead. You're free to do what you want. It's your Dream, after all."

"Woah~" Bad exclaimed, fascinated by the different Dreams. Taking out his own from beneath Dream's bench, he stared in wonder before saying, "Can I decorate mine?! I think it'd be really fun to do so!"

"Were you not listening, Bad? I said it's okay for you to do what you want."

"Ahhhh, really?!" Shuffling closer to Dream, he hugged him close. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Dream! Hm... now what should I give it look like me...?" As they sat in silence, the trio were caught off-guard by Bad talking to... himself? "What? You think I should dye it? But why would I want to kill it?"

"Um... Bad?" Dream asked, raising an eyebrow. "Who're you talking to?"

"Huh? Oh! I forgot to tell you, Dream, but I've made a new friend too! He's around here somewhere..." Looking around his feet, Bad finally stood up and wandered over to a couple of bushes, scaring his new friends when he pulled an arm almost out of thin air. "Aw, come on now! I didn't really forget you! Now stop being a muffinhead and come out!"

"A muffinhead...?" Sapnap snickered while George smirked, leaving Dream to worry all the more for his friend's vocabulary. 

"Guys!" Bad grunted as he struggled to pull whoever out of the bushes. He slowly made progress using his wings as leverage. "I want you! To meet! Skeppy! Argh!"

The three boys jumped back in surprise as another boy tumbled out of the bushes. He had skin almost as black as Bad's but he wasn't a 'demon'. Everything he touched left some sort of black mark made by the dust falling off of him and he ducked his head in embarrassment, trying to make himself as small as possible. "H... Hi..."

"Hi... Skeppy?" Dream peered down at Skeppy, reaching a hand out to him. When he touched his arm, Skeppy flinched and cowered even more into himself. Rubbing the remnants of black dust on his hands, Dream whispered to Bad, "Is he alright?"

"Yeah, he's fine," Bad whispered not so quietly back. "He's just shy, aren't you?" Skeppy nodded as Bad smiled, patting his back in comfort. "Skeppy, I want you to meet Dream, Sapnap and George, although I'm sure you already know them since you've been hiding this entire time."

George was still in disbelief at what he had just witnessed. "How did we not realise he was in the bushes? He's far too big for the bushes to hide him."

"Ooh! Ooh! I can explain that!" Bad raised his hand excitedly in the air before gesturing to Skeppy. "Skeppy is an Oreman! He comes from the ground and lives there too."

"An Oreman..." Dream inspected the dust on his hands again, snapping his fingers together when the switch in his brain clicked. "Oremen come in different varieties, I assume?"

Bad nodded enthusiastically. "That's right! There's coal, iron, gold, lapis, diamond and emerald, although the last two are extremely rare. From what Skeppy has told me, they're regarded as the most treasured among his people."

"So Skeppy here is a coal Oreman?" Sapnap asked, leaning down to Skeppy who shrank away. "Hey, I'm not going to hurt you or anything."

He didn't respond to Sapnap, instead scooting closer to Bad and tapping on his leg. ".....Bad....?"

Going to his side, Bad wrapped and arm around him. "Yeah, Skeppy? Is there something you need?"

"Can...we go back....now....?"

"You really want to go back? Aw, okay." Hugging him affectionately, Bad stood up and addressed the group. "Sorry, guys, but Skeppy and I are going to go home now. We'll come back tomorrow though! Right, Skeppy?"

There was no response from the coal Oreman as he simply nodded, although his skin was noticeably a shade lighter after Bad had hugged him; an almost pinky-black colour if one were to describe it. Without saying goodbye, Skeppy had begun his descent into the ground, slowly sinking until he was almost submerged in dirt.

"Wait, Skeppy! I have to come too!"

"Hang on!" Dream called out to Bad, pulling on his arm. "How are you going to follow him down? Won't you suffocate?"

He shook his head. "Nope! That's one thing about Oremen; they hollow out the ground beneath them whilst pushing whatever dirt, gravel or stone above them. That way they can't be easily found by others, but we mainly use it just to make homes for both of us to live in." As an afterthought, Bad gave Dream a sheepish smile. "Um, I hope you don't mind, Dream, but we are living underneath your house. We're not causing trouble, I promise! I just wanted to live somewhere near you and Skeppy didn't mind here, so yeah. We can move if you want—"

"No, no, you don't have to! That's completely fine as long as you don't cave my house in." He chuckled lightly before waving goodbye. "See ya, Bad! Feel free to visit anytime, okay? You too, Skeppy."

"....Thank...you..."

"Thank you, Dream! And bye-bye, Sapnap, George! It was nice meeting you two!"

"Same here, Bad." George said. "See you tomorrow!"

"Bye, Bad!" Sapnap shouted, a little too enthusiastic with his screech. "Let's talk more tomorrow!"

With a final wave goodbye, Bad followed Skeppy into the ground while the trio watched both boys disappear. After they had gone, the three boys looked to each other and fell to the ground laughing. "We're hallucinating, aren't we?" Dream wheezed out, doing little to catch his breath. "This is all one big dream, isn't it?"

"I really hope it is," George chortled out, clutching at his sides as he rolled back and forth. "There's no way that actually happened, right?"

"I don't know, bro, but the question is; do we want to wake from this dream or not?" Sapnap was doing his best to stand but rejoined his friends back on the ground after having laughed so hard. Shaking his head to regain some sense of sensibility, he looked to where Bad and Skeppy had disappeared and muttered, "Guess we'll have to wait until tomorrow to know for sure."

**———————**

"Skeppy! Skeppyyyyy!"

Bad ran around the room, frantically searching for his friend. However, it would be a while until he did find him since the room was practically filled to the brim with Dreams, all of which had been taken from their little night scavenger hunts. This was mainly Bad's fault since he found the little Dreams to be absolutely adorable, but that wasn't to say Skeppy was against them. They had a unique charm that bewitched him too, so he 'begrudgingly' agreed to go with Bad to retrieve more and more of them.

"Skeppyyyyy! Where are you?!"

"I'm over here, Bad." Skeppy walked out from behind a mountain of Dreams, silently thanking them for their cover. In his own home and space, Skeppy wasn't as shy as he appeared to be and even less so when he was alone with Bad. He couldn't really explain, but perhaps it was Bad's easygoing and caring nature that made him so approachable and easy to talk to. "What did you need? Please don't say another Dream. We have, like, a MILLION of them."

"No, that's not what I wanted you for although it is related to them." Skeppy groaned in exasperation, turning away only to be spun right back around to face Bad. "Hey! Don't leave when I'm still talking to you!"

"But I want to sleep. Would you really interrupt my sleep just to tell me something not that important?"

"BUT IT IS IMPORTANT!"

"Alright, alright!" Skeppy flapped his arms in front of Bad, batting him away to regain personal space. "What did you want to tell me?"

Bad smiled widely and picked a Dream from their makeshift table (made out of stone for those who were curious). Shoving it in Skeppy's face, he exclaimed, "This is the Dream Dream gave me!"

"The Dream Dream gave you?" Skeppy smirked, laughing lightly at the silly sentence. "And what's so great about the Dream Dream gave you, Bad Bad?"

"Hey! I'm not bad!"

"Then who are you? Ow, ow, ow!" He raised his arm defensively as Bad lightly slapped him. "Okay, stop! Just tell me why this is a good thing!"

"Promise you'll stop being mean?"

"I pinky promise, Bad. Now tell me why this Dream is different from the millions we have right now."

Bad watched Skeppy carefully, eyeing him to see if he would dare tease him again. After what felt like ages, Bad finally nodded in affirmation to himself and smiled again, happy to explain why he's so happy. "Because this Dream has a dream! My dream to be exact!"

"Your dream? And what is your dream, Bad?"

"My dream is to have a million muffins! You know, those nice treats we always find in Dream's house!"

"Bad," Skeppy started, his eyebrows twitching slightly, "I hate to break it to you, but there is no way we can fit a million muffins OR a million Dreams in this house! Why do you have to pick a million of EVERYTHING?!"

"BECAUSE YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING!" Bad retorted. "And it's not like you're against it! You like the Dreams just as much as I do!"

"Th-that's not true!" Skeppy could feel his cheeks heat up, desperately wishing Bad couldn't see his blush. "The first few, sure. But a hundred million of them?! That's going a bit far."

"Skeppy," Bad said, crossing his arms. "say that you love the Dreams as much as I do or else I won't talk to you for the rest of the day."

"Bad, you wouldn't do that, would you?"

"................."

"Bad? Please? Don't do this to me, Bad.... Bad? Bad!" Skeppy took Bad by the shoulders and began shaking him. But Bad did nothing. He simply looked away from Skeppy and pouted. Skeppy's anxiety grew and he shook Bad harder. "Bad, please! Talk to me! I, I love the Dreams as much as you do, okay?! That's what you wanted me to say, isn't it?!"

"......Was it genuine?"

"YES! Yes, it was genuine!" He sighed in relief when Bad spoke, taking in a deep breath when Bad hugged him. "Why do you have to be so difficult?"

"I'm not difficult. You're difficult."

"Whatever. Are we done with the Dreams now?"

"No! There's one more thing I want to do!"

"And what's that?" He watched as Bad went around the room, looking at the Dream piles that littered the room before picking one out and handing it to him. "Why're you giving me this?"

"It's for you!" Bad cheerfully said. "Dream told me that if you tell it your dream then one day it'll come true!"

"And you believe him?"

"Of course! He's my friend! Now—" Bad shoved the Dream into Skeppy's chest—"tell it your dream! Quickly!"

"But what if I don't have a dream?"

"Then think of one! Haven't you always been saying you wished you were different? I mean, I like you the way you are, but you're always saying how you wish you were made different. Wouldn't that be your dream?"

Looking down into the Dream's placid smile, Skeppy nodded as he understood what Bad meant. Since his birth, he had always been considered as disposable among his people. It was part of the reason why he left his colony in the first place; so he could live his own life and be more than what he was. But that proved to be difficult when he didn't know _how_ to live outside of his home. Shy and reserved, Skeppy found himself hiding more from the outside world than he did from his people and it was all thanks to what he was.

Coal.

The lowest of all the ores, there wasn't much hope to begin with. Everyday, he'd spend wishing he was born a diamond or an emerald; even as iron or gold or lapis would be nice. But he wasn't. He was coal and that was all he was ever going to be. He wanted to be liked and loved by everyone but as he is now it wasn't possible. That is, until he met Bad.

Bad gave him the love and attention everyone else wouldn't give him, and he was eternally grateful for that. It did freak him out when they first met and he wouldn't leave his side, but now things are different. Now it's him that wouldn't leave Bad's side.

"Skeppy? Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry. I was just thinking about... my dream."

"Mhm, and...? What did you think of?"

"....I want to be a diamond," he said, his lips forming a hopeful smile. "I want to be a diamond and be accepted by other people."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry if there is any confusion in this story. If you have questions, I'll do my best to answer them. I hope you enjoyed the chapter though as well as Skeppy's little backstory and dream. Tell me what you think about it and I hope yo see you in the next chapter!


	5. Big Dream, Little Dream

"What, he's still here? I would've thought he'd be gone by now."

"I did too but apparently Sapnap and George are now friends with him."

"GEORGE?! He hangs out with George?! Nah, you've gotta be joking! That can't be true!"

"It's true! Oh no, he's seen us! Run!"

The two kids pushed each other down the street, a silent Dream watching after them. He recognised them as the same two kids from the day he met Sapnap and had made an effort to remember them. Not because he wanted to but because they frequented this area quite often, passing comments between them as they approached his stand then running off in a hurry. Needless to say, they were quite the odd pair.

Much like him and his friend.

The day passed quickly and Dream had yet to see them again. It would be another week before they were back, standing across the street and huddling close together. As usual he couldn't hear what they were saying but unlike all the other times where they ran away, they instead walked up to the stand wearing mischievous smiles on their faces.

The first boy was blond and had light blue eyes. He wore a red and white shirt—walking with confidence as he crossed the road—and when he and his friend stood opposite Dream, he slammed a hand down on the stand and shouted, "Hey! How are ya?!"

Puzzled by the child's sudden courage to talk to him, he quietly replied, ".... Hi?"

The boy gasped, clasping his hands to his cheeks. "Oh my God, it speaks!"

"It does! It does!" His friend shouted, throwing his arms in the air in celebration. Similar to the first boy, he had light blond hair and even lighter blue eyes. He wore a dark green shirt and buzzing around him were tiny honey bees that never strayed too far away from his person. "Quick! What should we ask it?! What else can this creature say?!"

Their incessant chatter grew louder and louder as they seemingly celebrated Dream's ability to talk. He could only sit and watch as they shouted about performing tests and experiments to understand more of 'his kind'. Confused by their peculiar behaviour, Dream put down his work and leaned over the counter. "I'm sorry, but can I help you?"

The two boys stopped their excited conversation to look at him. Dream was wary of their impish grins and made a show of cleaning his stand, tucking his dolls under the counter and out of harm's way. Having almost cleared the bench, the boy in red and white quickly snatched a doll and gave it a curious look. "What the hell is this? Aren't you a bit old to be playing with dolls, mistah?"

"It's a Dream doll—"

"But, Tommy," the other boy interrupted, "you still play with Henry the Cow and he's a doll."

"Shut up, Tubbo!" Tommy snarled under his breath then turned back to Dream. "Don't listen to him. He's, uh, he does his own thing from time to time. Y'know, Tubbo being Tubbo."

"Tubbo being Tubbo?" Dream chuckled, quirking an eyebrow. "I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the phrase."

"Yeah, that's because it's Tubbo," he replied as if that explained everything. "That's all you need to know."

"I'm Tubbo!" Tubbo exclaimed with his arm in the air, the bees around him zipping out of the way but still staying relatively close. "And this is Tommy! He's my best friend!"

"Thanks, Tubbo. You just told a complete stranger our names."

"So what? He seems friendly. Aren't you, mistah?" he asked with shining eyes and a smile.

"Yeah, I'm friendly."

"That's what a kidnapper would say," Tommy scoffed.

"But I'm not a kidnapper. I'm barely older than you two! Not to mention that you told me his name less than ten seconds ago too."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." The young boy brushed it off, rolling his eyes. "Since you know our names, why don't you tell us yours? What's your name?"

"My name's Dream."

" _Dream_?! What kind of name is that?!"

"It's my name, Tommy," he said, adding a dark, underlying tone to 'Tommy'. "Got a problem with it?"

There was almost no time to answer as Tommy sputtered with laughter (as did Tubbo), repeating Dream's name over and over before saying, "No, no! There's nothing wrong with the name, ahahaha!"

"Well, it doesn't sound like it."

"I think it's a cool name, Dream," Tubbo said having calmed down from his laughter. "It's not a common name, but it's cool! If you want to know, Tommy's full name is Tommy Innit, so 'Dream' isn't as weird a name as you'd think."

"TUBBO!!!" Tommy yelled as he pulled him aside, not worried about the bees who buzzed angrily around them. "Why do you keep telling this man everything about us?! And what do you mean by 'weird'?! Do you think my name is weird, Tubbo?!"

"Well, yeah. My name's weird too. T u b b o."

Dream smiled at the two boys arguing back and forth, smiling partly because Tubbo thought his name was cool. Unfortunately, their bout of shouting ceased and his attention was once again taken away from his work to the two children. "So, Tommy and Tubbo... how can I help you? What brings you here to my stand?"

Tommy took the lead and raised the Dream he had been holding the entire time. "Can you explain to us what these are? Whenever we come and visit you're always making these creepy dolls and you don't say a word to anyone."

"Yeah, not gonna lie it is really creepy." Tubbo shuffled beside Tommy and stared at the dolls, some of his bees landing on one. "But they're also kind of cute. Look, Tommy! Spinz likes this one!"

"You've named your bees?" Dream asked.

Tubbo shot up with excitement while Tommy let out a pained groan. "Yeah! Their names are Spinz, Spunz and Spoonz! I have more at home but these ones are my best friends!"

"I thought I was your best friend," Tommy muttered before clearing his throat. "Why did you have to ask about his bees, Dream? Now he's going to go on and on about them."

Dream ignored him. "What about bees do you like, Tubbo?"

"EVERYTHING! They're so cool! They make honey and they buzz and they're black and yellow and they're just so cool! I love bees! Do you like bees, Dream?! Did you know that bees like certain kinds of flowers?! Spinz here likes cornflowers while Spunz and Spoonz like daisies!"

"I didn't know that, Tubbo. That's pretty interesting."

"I know, right?!"

"You know he doesn't care, Tubbo," Tommy interjected. "He's only saying that to be nice to you."

"Oh."

Dream tried to defend himself. "That's not true, Tommy. I was very interested in what Tubbo had to say."

"Oh yeah? Then why don't you sound excited or happy about it?"

"Do I not sound happy?" Looking to Tommy and Tubbo, he shrugged. "Well, I am happy. It's not everyday you hear a bee fact. And thanks to Tubbo, I might even try it out with the bees near my place."

"You have bees too?!" Tubbo asked, jumping on the spot. "Can I see them?!"

"Ahaha, sorry but they're not bees that I own. They're just ones that occasionally visit my backyard."

"Oh... then you should come to our house someday! I can show you all of my bees!"

"Tubbo!" Tommy pulled him aside again and whispered, "What are you trying to do?! What if this guy's a murderer or something?"

"But he's not."

"You don't know that!" he retorted. With an exasperated sigh, he faced Dream and glared at him. "Sorry, but you're not allowed to visit our house."

"Okay."

He stared at Dream for a bit, eyeing him and his work before saying, "You know, I was expecting something a bit more from you."

"Like what?"

"Like you asking why you can't come or you complaining about it or something."

"Why would I complain? If you don't want me to visit then fine. I've got my stand to attend to anyway."

From behind, Tubbo tugged on Tommy's arm and whispered something to him. Tommy pulled a face and looked behind him, an audible 'what?!' heard from his mouth. They whispered furiously to each other until they finally agreed on whatever they were talking about. Taking a step forward, Tommy knocked on the counter to get Dream's attention. "Hey, Dream."

"Yes, Tommy?"

"Tubbo was wondering if he could have one of these dolls." Pointing at a doll with a bee on it he said, "It seems like one of his bees has taken a liking to them and now he wants one."

"PRAISE THE BEES!!" Tubbo called from behind.

"Um, sure." Dream took the doll that had one of Tubbo's bees and handed it to Tubbo who gasped in delight. "There you go! Hope you enjoy it!

"Thanks, Dream!"

"Wait!" He shouted, shocking the two kids as if they had done something wrong. "There's something you need to know about these dolls first before you go away."

"And you needed to scare us to let us know?!" After receiving a quiet apology from Dream, Tommy asked, "What do we need to know about the dolls?"

"They're not just dolls. They're called Dreams and the idea is that you tell it your dream and one day it'll come true."

"That," Tommy began, shaking his head with a smile, "that sounds ridiculous, Dream. No offense, but I don't believe it."

"You don't have to if you don't want to. I'm just saying that that's the idea and you can do it if you want to."

"Before anything, do we have to pay for these... Dreams?"

"No."

"Then what's stopping people from taking the whole lot?" Tommy asked, his eyes scanning meticulously over all of the Dreams.

"Nothing," he replied, thinking back to Bad and all of the Dreams he had taken. "Let's just say you can take more than one but no more than five, alright?"

"Why're you saying it as though _I'm_ going to take one?"

"Oh, come on, Tommy!" Tubbo lightly punched his arm and showed him his Dream. "It's not going to hurt you if you take one. You don't even have to do anything with it! Just make a wish and put it next to Henry and Harold!"

"Henry and Harold?" Dream asked, sneering at Tommy. "Who're they?"

"Well," Tubbo explained, "Henry and Harold are his stuffed cows he keeps on his bed. He's had them ever since he was little."

"He's still little, Tubbo."

"Shut up, Dream!" Tommy shouted.

"Oh." Tubbo thought for a bit then said, "More little than he is now then."

"TUBBO!" Dream and Tubbo laughed as Tommy tried to defend himself (emphasis on 'tried') until he ran out of breath and sighed. Huffing at the both of them, he faced away from the stand and crossed his arms in defiance. "Say what you want but one day I'll be bigger than both of you! Then we'll see who's the one laughing!"

"Probably still us," Dream muttered, laughing at Tommy's glare. "Tubbo's right though. You can wish for anything you want whether it be to grow taller or to—"

"You're mocking me, aren't you?"

"I'm just saying that your wish can be anything! I have a friend who wished he could see colour, I have a friend who wished to become Superman, and I have a friend who wished he had a million muffins. Do those sound like they'll come true?"

"No, not really..."

"I wish for a garden full of bees!" Tubbo exclaimed, watching his bees fly around his Dream happily. "More friends for my bees!"

"Tubbo, you already have a garden full of bees."

"Well, I want more bees, and if you're going to be against that then I wish I was a bee or I wish I was part bee. How cool would it be to be part bee?!"

"Arrrgh, too many bees!" Tommy complained, holding his head in his hands. "Dream, make him stop!"

"Tommy," Dream said as he pulled him aside and behind the counter. He picked up a Dream from the pile below and removed Tommy's hands from his head, placing the Dream in them. "Tommy, you can dream anything you want. This is part of the reason why I began this stand; to help make other people's dreams come true. Now I want you to take this Dream and tell it your dream. Remember, it can be anything you want!"

"But what if I don't have a dream?"

"Then make one up. A dream can be as big or as little as you want it to be. As long as it's something you want or something you want to achieve, then you're fine!"

Tommy stared long and hard at the Dream in his hand before quietly saying, "Do I have to say it out loud?"

Behind the mask, Dream smiled at him and patted his shoulder. "No, you don't. If you feel better not saying it out loud in front of me or Tubbo, then you can say it later when no-one's around or in your head. Just promise me you won't throw it out once you leave, okay?"

"....Okay."

"TOMMY!" Crashing into his back, Tubbo began pulling and dragging on his arm. "Tommy, we have to go! Wilbur will be waiting for us at the gate!"

"Alright, alright! I'm coming!" He pulled his arm back and turned to face Dream. "Sorry, Dream, but we've got to go. We'll see you another time, yeah?"

"Of course, Tommy! It's not like I move away from this spot anyways, so I'm bound to see you guys here again."

"Bye, Dream!" Tubbo called from down the street, waving his arm in the air. "Thank you for the Dream doll!"

"You're welcome, Tubbo!" Dream called back, tapping Tommy's shoulder before he walked away. "Good luck on your wish, Tommy. I hope you'll be able to think of one you like."

"Thanks, Dream. I'll try to think of a good one."

At last, the two boys were running down the street and out of Dream's view. They each held onto a Dream as they made their way to the gate that led to the outside of town. Standing by the entrance was an older boy with brown hair wearing a black jacket over a white shirt. He was scrolling through his phone when he saw the two kids fast approaching him and he smiled as he called out to them. "Tommy! Tubbo! Hurry up or we're going to be late!"

"Coming, Wilbur!" They shouted back, speeding up until they collided into him. Ruffling their hair, the older boy led them out the gate and along the stone road that would eventually bring them back to their own town. He listened to them babble on about their day and what happened to them, and became intrigued when they began talking about Dream. "So who's this Dream character? Is he a nice man or evil like you made him out to be when you first saw him?"

"He's not a man!" Tubbo said, squishing the doll in his hand. "He's actually younger than we thought. Younger than you, I think."

"He's younger than me and yet you guys were scared of him?" Wilbur teased, bending down low to get in their faces. "Does that mean you're scared of me too?"

"No, of course not! We wouldn't be scared of you, Wilbur!" Tommy said, pushing Wilbur away. "Anyway, it turns out he's not an evil man like we thought—"

"He's still a bit creepy with all of the dolls though," Tubbo commented as he showed Wilbur his doll. "Look! He wears a mask that has the same face as this doll!"

"Yeah, that's a bit weird." Wilbur took the Dream from Tubbo and looked at it carefully. "He does a good job with these though. They're almost seamless if you don't look hard enough."

"Yeah! And we made a wish with them! Oh, Wilbur, you have to come with us next time to see him. He told us that if we told these Dreams our wish then one day it'll come true!"

"Dreams? Is that what he calls them?"

"Yeah, it's weird, isn't it?" Tommy said, still clutching onto the Dream in his hand.

"I would say it's fitting if his name wasn't the same as the dolls."

"I wished for a garden full of bees, Wilbur!"

"Tubbo, you already have a garden full of bees."

"That's what I told him!" Tommy chimed in. "Then he wished for even more bees!"

"I also said I wanted to be part bee!" When he received a weird look from Wilbur, Tubbo explained further. "Like, I want wings like a bee and maybe antennas to help smell or something. I don't know, I just think it'd be cool to be part bee!"

"And what did you wish for, Tommy?" Wilbur asked, shaking his head at Tubbo's fantasy. "Did you wish for something like what Tubbo wished for or did you choose something different?"

"I, uh... I wished for—"

"He didn't wish for anything. He didn't believe what Dream said even though it's all for fun."

They were nearing the gate to their town but their footsteps came to a stop as Tubbo and Wilbur waited for Tommy to respond. He had fallen short when Tubbo explained what happened and he was embarrassed for not having a dream if that was something to be embarrassed about. He really did want a dream, something he'd want to become or something he wants in his life, but he couldn't think of anything. As he went into deep thought about what he could wish for, Tubbo and WIlbur came to his side, asking if everything's alright. 

"It's not that I didn't believe him," Tommy started, looking down at the ground. "I just didn't have a dream to tell."

In an attempt to comfort him, Wilbur bent down to Tommy's level (something he didn't like Wilbur doing since it made him feel small, but he wouldn't tell that to him), and looked him in the eyes with a smile. "Tommy, it's okay to not have a dream right now. I'm sure when you think of a dream it'll be one that you'll want and like and will be happy to tell others. If it's of any help, try and think of something you love or aspire to be. Take Tubbo as an example; he loves bees so much he wished to be part bee himself."

"Yeah! It can be anything, Tommy! You could even wish to be part cow if you'd like."

"Just because I like my cows, Tubbo, doesn't mean I want to be one."

"But it's just for fun. It's not like our wishes are actually going to come true."

"That depends on how hard you work towards them," Wilbur said. "It also depends on what you wish for."

"That's what I mean, Wilbur. As if Tommy and I are going to turn into bees and cows!"

"Hmhmhm, you never know~"

"Wilbur—" Tommy tugged on Wilbur's sleeve, drawing his attention back on him—"I can wish for anything I want, right?"

"That's right. Anything and everything your heart desires."

"Ooh! Is Tommy finally going to make a wish now?!"

"Shh!" Wilbur put a finger to his lips as he silenced Tubbo, turning back to Tommy with a kinder face. "Have you thought of a dream, Tommy? Do you know what you want to wish for?"

"Yeah..." He fiddled with the Dream in his hands, twisting and squeezing its body as he debated whether this really was what he wanted or not. His mind was going against the clock as the sun neared the edge of the horizon just behind their town, the gates leading into it casting long shadows across the ground and disappearing just short of their feet. When he had thought he had stalled enough and thought what he was going to say once last time, he took in a breath and said, "I want to be someone people can look up to and make everyone happy. I want to be someone people like and want to be like. Like you, Wilbur..."

His words trailed off, sighing as he partially regretted what he said and partially feeling relieved at having said it out loud. It was something he wanted and he didn't feel any shame in it, but telling it to the person he admires the most cumbersome and something he wasn't all that used to. Flinching in shock, it took him a moment to realise that Wilbur had pulled him in for a hug. Surprise, confusion, whatever he was feeling instantly disappeared as he returned the hug, feeling the smile on Wilbur's face beside him. 

"That, Tommy, is a wonderful dream and the highest praise I've ever heard from anyone ever." Similarly, he felt Tommy smile into his shoulder and held him for a few seconds longer before saying, "It's also the most complimentary thing you've ever said to me."

Tommy reared back, pulling away from Wilbur's smirk and staring at it with his own shocked and mortified face. "That's not true! I've called you plenty of nice things and, and, and—"

"You're lying, Tommy! Listen to you stutter!" 

Wilbur was dealt playful hits from Tommy as Tubbo joined the fray, laughing alongside him. With the sun now disappearing almost completely behind the buildings of their town, he gently took both Tommy and Tubbo's arms and dragged them the rest of the way home.

Once they had safely reached their house, Tubbo rushed to greet the bees in his garden while Tommy made to go to his room, stopped only by Wilbur who called to him from the front door. "Tommy, despite my teasing earlier, I really do want to say thank you. What you said was really nice and I'm happy you think of me as a role model. One day, you will become the person you want to be and I have no doubt you'll achieve it."

"Thank you, Wilbur," Tommy replied, smiling as he clutched the Dream close. "I hope I will become the person I want too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope I got their characters down right o_o and their dreams. If you guys have different opinions on what their dreams should be, feel free to comment about them! Or not. Honestly I just hope you liked this chapter because it is another long one and I hope you look forward to the next one! Thank you again for reading this far through!
> 
> (Also, who else expected Tommy and Tubbo to be the two kids from the first chapter? XD)


	6. Music for My Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit of a long one sorry! But I hope you enjoy it regardless and look forward to the next chapters! (I should hope to have more free time to work on them so yay!) Thank you for your patience and enjoy!!!

"Dream, have you even _seen_ the rest of town? It looks like you only ever go between your house and your stand everyday."

"That's because I _do_ only travel from my house to my stand everyday," Dream answered Sapnap. He had begun working as usual—head down, needle and fabric in hand—while George and Sapnap stood behind him, arms crossed in disbelief. "I have gone around town maybe once when I first moved in, but never since."

"Dude, you've got to get a life!" Sapnap slammed his hand down on the bench beside Dream, roughly spinning him in his chair with the other hand to face them. "Look, George and I are going to this concert tonight and we're inviting _you_ to come join us."

"That's okay. I'm not that interested—"

"No!" George snatched the unfinished doll in Dream's hands (almost stabbing himself with the needle as he did so) and glared at him. "You're coming with us and that's final! We're not going to let a friend of ours become a shut-in and not socialise with the rest of the world."

"Technically, I'm not a shut-in since I come out here to do business—"

"Shut up! Just be ready by 6:30 and then we'll go! Got it?!"

With not much room to say anything (especially with George and Sapnap hovering right in front of his face), Dream complied and sighed as the duo high-five each other in victory. "Hey, why don't we invite Bad and Skeppy too? I'm sure they would like to come as well."

At some point during their high-five cheer, Sapnap and George were locked in an arm wrestling battle. The tension and sheer concentration on their faces was quite concerning to Dream, half-expecting them to burst a blood vessel each, until they simultaneously broke away and gasped. As unusual as the sight of it all was he couldn't help but laugh at them, repeating his question to which George responded. "Uh, I don't know. They can if they want to, but I haven't seen them since last week or the week before?"

"Yeah, same here." Sapnap flexed his hand for a bit, giving it a shake every now and then. "We don't really have a way of contacting them and like George said, I haven't seen them in a long time. What about you, Dream? Have you seen them lately?"

"Only at night when they come into my kitchen. I'm their main source of food, I think, and would you believe it if I said that I have a muffin shortage right now?" There was a mass of chuckles between them as Dream explained what he's seen and heard of the two supernatural beings. "I've barely been getting any sleep too because they stay up all night watching TV! At this rate, I should consider getting them to pay rent."

George was the first to recover from his giggles as he asked, "So what you're saying is that you only ever see them at night?" When Dream gave an affirmative nod, he shrugged. "It'll be too late to ask them to come with us then. We'll have to do without them this time."

"You also have to remember that they're not... 'normal' like us," Sapnap added. "I don't know how people will react to seeing a demon and a gem-boy in the open."

"He's called an Oreman, Sapnap, not a gem-boy."

"Whatever. We'll invite them to do something else next time that doesn't involve them getting into public, alright? For now, we have to make sure Dream stays true to his word and comes with us to this concert tonight."

Dream rolled his eyes at his friend's exasperation. "I _promise_ you that I'll come! What, you expect me to just phone you guys and tell you that I'm sick or something after spending a whole day with you?"

"You might. I don't know what lies you're capable of spewing, Dream."

"I'll show you what I'm capable of, Sapnap~"

"Oh my god, stop being such a flirt, Dream! You're making me blush~"

"See? I told you I have good looks, intelligence and charm~"

"Will you guys stop and just get a room already?!" George joked, watching his two friends progressively get closer to each other with every tease. "These things should be done in private and not in public!"

"Aw, come on, George~" Dream turned his attention to him, his voice full of mischief. "Don't you want to join in too?"

"What? No! I—"

"You're right, Dream! George is practically _begging_ us to let him join." Sapnap inched closer to George, snaking an arm around his waist and pulling him closer. "I bet you're just jealous because you can't have either of us, hm?"

"Th-that's not true!"

"Is that so? Then you can sit by yourself at the concert while Dream and I sit at the back and make out, okay?"

"SAPNAP!" George shouted at the top of his lungs.

"GEORGE!" he shouted back at the screaming British.

"DREAM!" Dream shouted if but to join in with the chaos that quickly unfolded as the trio bantered and joked, lasting until the day was slowly turning into night.

**————————**

"This is it?" Dream asked as they arrived at the gate of a park. "I don't see many people around here nor any signs of a concert."

"That's because it's a small concert only consisting of one act. Don't worry though," George said, reassuring the bewildered look on Dream's face, "this guy is good. He usually plays at the bar on the other side of town, but he's chosen to perform here for tonight to allow people like us to listen to him."

"Because we're not old enough to go see his other performances," Sapnap added, rolling his eyes. "Well, _I'm_ not old enough to go. George here is ancient!"  
  
"I am not!" George retorted, somewhat offended. "I'm barely older than you!

"You are _heaps_ older than me."

"Shut up! The point, Dream, is that we're too young to go into the bar and that's that! Not to mention that they insist you buy something from there."

"Yeah! Who cares about the drinking?! We want to hear his music, not drink beer!"

"Or wine."

"Or wine!" 

Sapnap threw his arms in the air in frustration as they made their way deeper into the park. In the distance they could see rows of chairs sitting before a semi-large platform with a single stool in the centre, speakers situated on either side of the platform. There was no backdrop to hide the cables that connected the speakers, spotlights (which ran along some scaffolding at the front of the platform), and amplifiers. Similarly, there was nothing to hide the two characters who stood at the back of the platform discussing something that was out of earshot, but presumably was to do with the performance being held that night. 

One boy was wearing a yellow sweater with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, black pants and a red beanie that covered a part of his loose brown hair. Slung around his back was an acoustic guitar that he occasionally would flip around to the front to pluck and strum as he spoke.

The other boy was shorter than him and had bright auburn hair with white tips. He wore a black cap with a gold insignia on the front of which Dream was unsure what it was meant to depict. He predominantly wore black clothes with the exception of the 4 colourful strips across his jacket and the white shirt he wore underneath.

As they settled down in their seats at the front, Dream was the first to break the silence. "So who is this guy? "

"His name's Wilbur Soot," George answered. He sat to the right of Dream and pointed to the boy with the guitar as he spoke. "He's a really good musician as you will soon find out. Like I said, he usually plays at the bar but tonight is different since he wants to perform in front of a different audience. I don't know about the other guy but I assume they work as the technician in charge of lights and sound." 

"Do you know anything about them, Sapnap?" Dream turned to his friend sitting to his left. He had already begun opening a bag of chips he had brought in his pocket as they waited for the performance to start. "Sapnap! Do you know anything?!"

"Hey, I heard you the first time! And to answer your question, no. I don't know who that guy is, but I agree with George. They're standing beside the booth thingy with all the cables leading to it, so they must be some helper or whatever."

"When's this show meant to start?" Dream asked, looking down at his phone which flashed 7 PM. "Soon, right?"

"About 7:30." Dream looked at him aghast as he shrugged. "I know we're early, but you want to get good seats, don't you?"

"There doesn't look like there's many people here though or any for that matter."

"Even better! It's nice when there's less people. Means you can make special requests with the performers."

Dream looked to George who only nodded in response. Shaking his head, Dream was mentally preparing himself for another thirty minutes of waiting when suddenly, there were loud calls and shouting of Wilbur's name from behind. All three boys turned to see who was causing the ruckus and just as quickly as they had turned, so did their eyes widen at the sight of two, very young boys making a mad dash straight towards them.

"WILBUUUUURRR! WILBUR, WILBUR, WILBUR!"

"WILBUR! WE'RE HERE! WE MADE IT, WILBUR!"

Simultaneously, everyone (including Wilbur) gave a loud groan as Tommy and Tubbo made their less than graceful entrance. Running pass Dream, Sapnap and George, they came to halt in front of Wilbur and began rapidly talking. 

"Wilbur! Look what I've got! Look, look, look! It's a gun, Wilbur! I've got a gun!"

"Wilbur! Look at my wings! I have wings! Aren't they cool, Wilbur?! They're just like a bee's!"

"Stop, stop, stop! Stop shouting in my ears!" Pushing Tommy's gun away from his face and spinning Tubbo around to face him, Wilbur gave both boys a stern look and an apologetic one to the audience (which was only Dream, Sapnap and George then). "You two are being too loud! Remember what I said this morning?"

"'Course we do!" Tommy said with a grin, pointing the gun in every direction but most notably in the other guy's face. "We're only allowed to come watch you as long as we behave and keep quiet."

"And have you been behaving yourselves and keeping quiet?"

"NOPE!"

Wilbur let out a pained sigh at their proud and cheeky smiles, shaking his head lightly. As he was about to give them another lecture, Tubbo stopped flapping his wings and spinning on the spot to excitedly tug on Tommy's arm while frantically pointing at Dream. "Tommy! It's Dream! Look, he's here!"

"He is?" There was a loud gasp when Tommy turned before an equally loud and high-pitched shriek rung in everyone's ears. While everyone rushed to cover their ears, Tommy and Tubbo ran up to Dream and began furiously talking his ear off. "AYYYYYYY, BIG MAN! BIG D! HOW'S IT GOING, MY MAN!!!!"

"DREAM! LOOK AT ME!" Tubbo spun around, showing off his wings. "THEY'RE LIKE A BEE'S! I'M A BEE, DREAM!"

"Th-that's nice, Tubbo," Dream replied, half-chuckling at the nickname Tommy called him (Sapnap and George not coping as well as they struggled to keep silent). "You're on your way to fulfilling your dream, aren't you?"

"Yup! I've got antennas too but they're at home. Dadza is helping me make them!"

"Hey, Dream, you like my gun?" Tommy jabbed him in the shoulder with his toy gun. "You know what I'm gonna do with it, Dream?"

"What, Tommy?"

"I'm gonna... I'm gonna shoot some people." He laughed as he spoke, pointing the gun at Sapnap and grinning. "Any last words, my friend?"

"Why would you want to shoot me? Shoot George if you're gonna shoot anyone. He's uglier than me so no loss there."

"Oi!" George shouted, slapping Sapnap on the shoulder. "Who're you calling ugly, ugly?!"

"Ah, he's got you there, Sapnap," Tommy snickered as he aimed the gun at him. "You can't call George ugly. Look at him! For that, I'm gonna shoot ya!"

"Do it! You won't!" Sapnap challenged.

The park had gradually grown dimmer since Tommy and Tubbo arrived (only now being lit up by the lampposts evenly placed along the path), and their playful fighting with Sapnap, George and Dream came to a stop when the stage lights came on. Hushing each other, they all returned to their seats—Tommy and Tubbo moving their chairs closer to the stage than should be allowed—and watched as Wilbur walked up to the lone stool lit up by the spotlights. There was a roar of cheers coming from everyone except Dream who looked to see where the other guy was however, he was unable to find them in time before Wilbur started talking.

"Thank you everyone for coming out this evening. My name is Wilbur Soot and I'll be performing for you all tonight."

"YEEEAAHH! GO, WILBUR!"

"Thank you, Tommy," he said, giving a little nod to the small child. "As you may or may not know, I've been performing at the Stronghold Bar for the past 3 years and I've met many different people there who've apparently said some good things about me to others—" Wilbur smiled charmingly to his audience and shifted in his seat—"which is why tonight, I'm holding a performance here in the park for all who are unable to come into the bar.

This performance will be going for an hour at most as I'll be performing all of my songs with breaks in between, so please take the time to relax and unwind and I hope you have an enjoyable evening."

A round of claps sounded from the audience (Dream included) as they gave their support to the musician. The thunderous applause died down just as Wilbur strummed the first chord and all was silent except for the melodious sounds of Wilbur's voice and his guitar.

**————————**

"How good was that?!" Sapnap shouted after the encore, his voice far louder than their clapping. "Wasn't that the best concert you've ever been to?!"

"It's my first time going to a concert so yes, it was the best!" Dream said with a chuckle at the end. 

"See?! I knew you'd love it! And to think you wanted to stay at home."

"Yeah, whatever! Thanks for inviting me, you two."

"No problem!" said George who beamed at his friends. "Now you are a man of culture!"

While they excitedly talked amongst themselves about the concert, Tommy and Tubbo had sneaked over to Wilbur to congratulate him on his performance. "Wilbur! You sounded amazing up there!"

"Yeah, Wilbur! Your songs are amazing!"

"Haha, thank you! You two were being really supportive of me that whole time, weren't you?"

"We were! We were!" They exclaimed, nodding their heads.

"And you were being good audience members too, so you know what that means?"

"What?"

"We'll be going to Techno's house tomorrow!"

"THE BLADE?! WE'RE GOING TO SEE HIM?!" Tommy fist punched the air as he shouted. "YES, FINALLY! I can finally show him all my new moves I've been working on!"

"And I can show him my wings!" Tubbo exclaimed, flapping his wings. "Techno knows about flying, doesn't he? He can teach me how to fly, right?"

"Well I don't know about that, Tubbo," Wilbur said as he ruffled his hair. "I know he's seen people fly before but whether he can do that himself or not is another story."

"Oh, I hope he does know! It'll be so cool if he does—"

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY CHIPS?!"

All of their heads turned to see Sapnap searching frantically around their seats and his pockets, shouting at the top of his lungs. George and Dream were trying to calm him down—doing little to stifle their laughter—and help search for his missing snacks. Wilbur, Tommy and Tubbo shared a look with each other before laughing and giggling as they listened to the sound of something struggling to open a foil packet. "I think I have a pretty good idea where his crisps went, don't you?"

"What are you talking about, Wilbur?" Tommy snickered. "No person could or would steal something like that from Sapnap!"

"Yeah!" Tubbo piped in. "It'd have to be something _furry_ -like that would steal from him!"

"I HEARD THAT!"

Another bout of laughter erupted from the 3 boys as they listened to the voice angrily shout at them. Their joyous moment soon ended when the other trio of boys came over to speak with them. "That was a great performance, Wilbur!" Sapnap said when they drew closer. "I've been looking forward to one of your concerts for ages!"

"Thank you, Sapnap, I've also been excited to perform for you guys too."

"Hey, if you're ever putting on another concert like this again, tell us and we'll come. All 3 of us!"

"Oh, that's right! Dream, is it?" Wilbur asked, extending his hand out to the masked boy. "I'm Wilbur, of course. It's very nice to meet you finally."

"Finally?" asked the confused Dream.

"Yes, finally. I've heard a lot about you from these two rapscallions."

"We-we're not rapscallions or whatever the hell you called us!" Tommy shouted.

"Oi! Watch your language!" He ruffled Tommy's hair before turning to Dream, ignoring the disgruntled complaints of the small child. "May I just say thank you so much for what you've done! I've never seen these two be so happy since... well, since Techno arrived and began telling them stories."

"Techno?" Dream asked, tilting his head slightly at the name.

"THE BLADE!" Tommy, once again, shouted. "THE BLADE HIMSELF LIVES IN OUR VILLAGE!"

"Yeah, and he's awesome! Aw, Dream, you've gotta meet him someday!"

"Techno... the Blade...?" Wilbur could see the cogs working inside of Dream's brain as he pieced the name together. "Do you mean Technoblade?!"

"You know him?!" Suddenly, Dream found himself being the centre of attention by Tommy and Tubbo who, like the day he gave them their Dreams, looked up at him with shining eyes. "You know the Technoblade himself?!"

Wilbur was less surprised than either of them and pulled them away from Dream, offering an apologetic smile to him as he did. "Yes, he does know him. Now if you two don't mind, I'd like to have a little chat with Dream before he goes."

"But, but we want to talk to him more!" argued Tommy.

"You'll have to save that for another day, I'm afraid," Wilbur said, pushing the kids towards George and Sapnap. "Now go and play with George and Sapnap! Have you shown them your gun yet?"

"Of course, I have! Hey, Gogy! Let's do target practise!"

"On who?"

"Who do ya think?" Tommy aimed at Sapnap. "You've got 10 seconds to hide, boy~"

"What are you, in some kinda old Western film?" Sapnap joked before running away from the stage. "CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!"

"GET HIM, TUBBO!"

Dream and Wilbur watched as their friends ran away, running between the many rows of chairs and generally keeping to the stage's parameters. Wilbur took note of the sudden silence beneath the stage and led Dream to the back side of it, choosing to sit next to his resting guitar. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions, Dream, and I can't say that I'm here to answer them all."

"Then why did you want to talk to me?" he asked, sitting down beside Wilbur and fiddling with the sleeves of his jacket. "You obviously know more about me than you let on. More than what Tommy and Tubbo have told you, that's for sure."

"Yes that is true, but also not. All I've ever been told is the general description of you and what you were like as a child. All good things, I assure you."

"Well that's good, 'cause I can think of a million bad things about me."

Dream chuckled, as did Wilbur, in the silence of the night apart from the distant shouting coming from the hunting party behind them. When they had calmed down, Dream let out a low sigh barely heard from behind his mask. "So... how is he? You can at least tell me that much, can't you?"

"He's been doing well," Wilbur curtly answered. "I'm sorry that I can't tell you everything, but you must understand that it is in the strictest confidence that I don't. True, it may be different because you and him have been close friends since you were little, but a promise is a promise."

"It's just... I never thought I'd ever hear his name again, let alone find him!" Dream exclaimed. "I thought he was gone forever!"

"It's quite the coincidence, isn't it? I bet he thinks the same as you though." Dream nodded in response while Wilbur looked on with pity. "Do you have any idea why he left, Dream?"

"No. He left before I could say goodbye..." His head sunk a little as he remembered back to that fateful day and how he had knocked on the doors and windows only to receive no response. "He hadn't even left a note or anything to explain his absence. Hehe, it was quite ironic too because I was going to give him a gift that day."

"What gift was that?" Wilbur asked, hoping he wasn't overstepping his boundaries.

"A Dream," he said while smiling behind his mask. "It was the first one I ever made and I was so proud and happy to give it to him that I immediately ran to his house when I had finished! But I was too late..."

Despite the cries and laughing in the background, the quiet between Dream and Wilbur was deafening to the point Dream was about to say something remarkably stupid only to be saved by the gentle strumming of a guitar. Almost immediately the tension dropped and Dream settled to sway to the music, his erratic nerves disappearing. The lullaby-like song would've put him to sleep had Wilbur not saved him again, this time by speaking. "I find putting my hands to work to be an excellent distraction from my worrying problems. Is that one of the reasons why you created that stand and began selling your Dreams?"

"Partly..." _The other reason was because I had hoped I would meet him someday, even if it was by chance._ "I thought if I couldn't make his dream come true then maybe I could help others instead."

Wilbur hummed in acknowledgement, letting his fingers mindlessly play as he talked with Dream. "You know he holds no hard feelings against you, right?" No response. "I mean, whatever reason he had for leaving wouldn't be because of you. Whenever he spoke about you, it was always with a smile on his face and a laugh I've only heard him use when he did talk about you. Never for anything else."

"Really?" Dream choked out. Tears made a slow descent down his face and he turned away to hide despite Wilbur not being able to see past his mask. "I... I don't know what to say."

Wilbur chuckled. "You don't have to say anything. Well, not until you meet him." He laughed even more when Dream whipped around, imagining the wide-eyed expression he was possibly wearing. "What, you thought after all this talk that you wouldn't meet him?"

"But, but, but—"

"Oh God, you're starting to sound like Tommy."

"But is that okay?!" Dream sputtered out. "Is it okay for me to go meet him?! Like, what if he doesn't want to see me? Or if he's busy or wants to be alone or, or, or—"

"2 days with Tommy and you're already like this," Wilbur joked, shaking his head. "Seriously, Techno wouldn't mind seeing you again. In fact, he'd be ECSTATIC which is more than I can say about him nowadays."

"He's not happy?"

"He is, but you wouldn't think that if you just met him for the first time... Almost like he's never experienced any excitement in his life."

"You're kidding me." Dream exhaled a breathy laugh. "Even after all this time he still sounds dead and monotone like always."

"Pretty much." Peaceful and quiet, they basked in the soothing song of Wilbur's guitar before he interrupted the tranquil space again. "Do you mind if I come to your stand next time and pick up one of those Dreams you make?"

Dream perked up, slightly shocked by his sudden question. "Really? You'd do that?"

"Yeah, why not? I've got a dream or two that I want to come true and after seeing how happy Tommy and Tubbo were made me want one too."

"Then by all means visit the stand one day! I'll be more than happy to give you a Dream to wish on."

"That's very nice of you, Dream," Wilbur said, changing the tempo and tune of his strumming as he contemplated his words. "And very poetic..."

Dream smiled, turning around to look at his friends sitting on chairs. "I better be getting back home now. George looks like he's just about to fall asleep and Sapnap... is struggling to keep Tommy and Tubbo at bay."

Wilbur only nodded as Dream laughed at Sapnap's misfortune, responding with a quiet, "See you, Dream. Make sure you come visit too."

"I will. Goodbye, Wilbur, it was great talking to you. And great performance, by the way. Absolutely outstanding!"

As Dream walked away, Wilbur continued to play his guitar until a fox appeared from beneath the stage and sat by his side. "Is he gone?" It asked.

"Yeah, he's gone."

"Thank God!" Suddenly, the fox transformed into the orange-haired boy although he maintained his tail and ears that poked out from beneath his cap. "I thought he'd never leave!"

"Mhm."

"So who is he? I never thought he'd be a friend of Techno's. And what was all that talk about dreams? I've never heard anything like it!"

"His name's Dream and he makes these dolls also called Dream," he explained, taking out a scrap of paper and a pencil from his pocket and scrawling down chords. "His idea is that you tell a Dream your wish and eventually it'll come true."

"Yeah, but surely that's not true. As if something as simple as that could work!"

"Fundy, you're never one to turn down free stuff." Wilbur smirked, watching the fox-boy's ear twitch. "Even if it doesn't work I still want one. You heard what I said about Tommy and Tubbo and how happy they were, right?"

"I heard, I heard. You really do adore those kids, don't you?"

"And you don't?" This time Wilbur laughed at Fundy's lashing tail and patted his back. "Don't worry, I'm just teasing you. It's obvious how you feel about them."

"Why do you have to be so annoying?" He was met with no answer as Wilbur returned to strumming chords, occasionally writing them down or scratching them out on his paper. 

"Already got a new song for the next concert, Wilbur?"

"Mm, not yet." His face was one of concentration as he figured out which chords worked well with each other. "This song might not even go public, actually."

"Seriously?" Again, no response. The sounds of Tommy and Tubbo playing slowly died down when Dream, George and Sapnap left although that didn't stop them from playing with each other. Fundy silently watched them run between the rows of chairs while listening to Wilbur's newest song, slightly humming in tune whenever he replayed certain bars. Compared to his other songs, this one didn't have the same melancholic or sober tone based from the few murmured words Fundy picked up from Wilbur's mumbling lips. The tune was reminiscent of his previous songs, mellow yet upbeat, but the words were brighter and more cheerful... Something had changed, something was different, and Fundy understood it was because of masked boy from before. "He's certainly special if he inspired you this much."

"...."

"Maybe you'll think of putting on a private show just for him and his friends. The song won't go public, sure, but it'll be nice if they could hear this one, don't you think?"

".....Yeah, maybe."

Fundy smiled at his friend's absorption, smiling even more when he started to recall their early days spent in the forests where Wilbur would meet him. "Remember when we were younger and we were lying on top of a hill and we watched a shooting star fly across the sky? Remember the wish you made that night, Wilbur?"

"...."

"I remember. You wished to be a performer and to sing onstage, make people smile and give them a reason to smile... I know the audience you sing for is small, but it has grown significantly over the years since you started and I've never been more proud of a friend, Wilbur. You've done extremely well."

"...."

".... Do you still hold onto the same wish, Wilbur? Do you still want to make people smile with your music and play in front of a large crowd? 'Cause I do. I still want that dream to come true for you."

He continued to sway to the music Wilbur played, glancing at him every now and then as he waited for a response. After a few more minutes of strumming and silently singing, Wilbur stopped and wrote down the final few words he'd write that night and whispered softly, "Yes, I still want that dream to come true. But now I have one other dream I want to come true too."

Fundy's ears perked up as he stared at Wilbur curiously. "And what's that?"

"I want to travel," Wilbur said. "I want to travel to new places and meet new people and... and I want to put them all into my songs. I want to take what they treasure most and put it into music." He let out a deep sigh, smiling briefly as he turned to Fundy and asked, "Do you think that's a good idea?"

They both could almost sense the stars that filled Fundy's eyes when Wilbur explained his wish to travel. The adoration and wonder Fundy felt was clearly evident when he said, "That is a great idea, Wilbur. It's the greatest you've ever had and I'll support you all the way no matter what."

"I thought the greatest idea I've ever had was learning the guitar and actually performing in front of people?"

"Th-there's that too, but this one is one of your greatest!"

"Thanks, Fundy, I appreciate that."

"No worries!" Fundy replied, tail thumping happily against the stage floor. "Now let's pack up. Believe it or not, but it looks like Tommy and Tubbo have actually tired themselves out and have fallen asleep on stage."

And indeed they had as Wilbur turned to see them asleep and snoring quietly on stage. Tommy clutched his toy gun close in one hand, the other holding hands with Tubbo who held a bunch of flowers in his free hand, presumably for his bee garden. "They're inseparable, aren't they?"

"Yep, and I don't think it's allowed for people to take flowers from the park, let alone carry a gun on their person."

"Ah, it's fine. Nobody's going to tell on them, are they?"

"Well, I might."

"Fundy!"

"Alright, I won't! Still against the law though..."

"That's rich coming from you, _fox-boy_ ~"

"Hey, I've got to make a living somehow!"

"Whatever." Wilbur laughed as he quietly made his way to the sleeping boys, carefully separating their hands. "Help me take them back to your place. And thank you for your help today, Fundy. Couldn't have made it this far without you."

"You're welcome," Fundy replied as he picked Tommy up, turning his face in disgust. "God, why did I pick him up? Next time, I bags on carrying Tubbo. He's less stinky than Tommy."

"That's on you for being a fox. You have a keener sense of smell than humans do."

"THAT'S NOT MY FAULT!!!"

"SHHHH!" Wilbur hushed loudly before whispering in a softer and deeper voice. "Do you want to wake them up?!"

"Well, it'd save us having to carry them," Fundy hissed back in an equally soft voice. Tommy stirred in his sleep, making Fundy freeze then relaxing when he didn't wake up. "Come on! I'll come back later to pack up the stage, so let's leave!"

In silent agreement, they carefully carried Tommy and Tubbo back to Fundy's house hidden in the far back of the park.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Congrats on making it to the end! I would like to put a disclaimer here that I do not ship Tommy and Tubbo. What I've written here is purely platonic and I hope there was no misunderstanding with that. And hey! A chapter title without the word "Dream" in it! Don't know how that's an accomplishment but oh well. Hope it made sense with the Wilbur's dream and the whole chapter in general.
> 
> Thank you again for reading and I hope you have a nice day/night/evening!


	7. Dream House

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there are any mistakes in this, please tell me and I'll amend them :D Thank you for reading and I hope you have a good day/night! 
> 
> (I would like to preface this chapter with that I wrote this part over the course of three or four days and not in succession of each other. I also would like to note that I wrote this late at night so I'm sorry if things don't make sense or if there are errors. Sorry and good luck!)

"Get back here, thief!"

_Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!_

A young boy ran through a small town, chased by an angry mob of people carrying various weapons from rolling pins to pitchforks to swords. He weaved through the streets in hopes of losing them, but the sounds of their footsteps getting louder said otherwise. The paved road beneath him was replaced with the dirt paths of the nearby park, dust flying behind him as he picked up his pace and narrowly dodged the low, overhanging branches of the oak trees. Despite his nimble movements, the angry shouts of the townspeople behind him only seemed to grow louder and louder by the second. That is until he spotted his home.

Tiptoeing precariously in a convoluted pattern across the stretch of land before his house, a small sense of relief filled him as he dove through the thicket of bushes that concealed the entrance to his home. Hiding behind the bushes, he couldn't help the sly smile that worked its way onto his face as he watched the mob come running towards him.

"Where'd that rat go?!" shouted a farmer whom the boy recognised as the man he stole chickens from. "Should be around here somewh—AAAGGHH!!"

The boy fell onto his back in laughter, clutching the sides of his stomach at the sight of the farmer falling into a hole. Just when he thought he had recovered from his laughing fit, he fell back again as one by one more people fell victim to his pitfall traps and disappeared beneath the ground, their surprised cries quickly changing to ones of rage.

Wiping the tears from his eyes and still wanting to remain unknown, he crawled away from the squawking coming from the holes (some from the trees where he had set traps to hang people by their feet) and made his way further into his home, greeted by the mounds of rubbish and collectibles he had...well, _collected_ over the years.

"Ah, it's good to be home," the boy said, sighing as he relaxed on an old couch. It wasn't even that old, actually. It was only old because the original owner was thinking of getting a new one and, with the help of his friends, the boy was able to transport it to where he lives now. So what if they broke into the owner's house at night? So what if the owner was mad and wanted his couch back? In the boy's opinion, he should be happy that he was given the opportunity to upgrade to a better couch. Smiling to himself, the boy said, "I am such a good person."

Suddenly, the snap of a twig caught his attention and his head snapped to the direction of the entrance. His eyes focused to the darkness that was caused by the shadows of the trees and felt his heart drop at the sight of a person...no, _three_ persons slowly approaching his home. Their voices, although a whisper, reeked of fury and hatred and the anxiety in the boy's chest only worsened as they drew closer.

_Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!_

Following the same routine as he had always done in his life, he took the worn bag he's had since young and stuffed whatever essential items he needed inside. As he packed, he was spurred on by the rustling made by the newly enraged mob coming after him. Taking one last look around his makeshift home, he gave it a solemn nod before leaving.

Heart heavy, he ran away and kept just out of sight of his home, looking back to see the townspeople set traps of their own in and around the place knowing full well he could never return. It was quite the role change whereby the people were now the ones laughing and cackling while he hung his head lowly, tears pricking his eyes as he watched them move all of his 'treasure' and destroy them beyond use. The couch, too, was a victim to their violence and all the happy memories he had of his friends struggling to move it, the late night talks he had with them on that couch...all of it was gone.

Turning away from the destruction, he shifted the bag on his back and made his way out of the park in search of a new home. A home he always hoped would stay forever.

**————————**

"Bad...what are you doing?"

It was three in the morning, possibly a little past three, and Dream woke to the sound of pots and pans hitting the floor. After groggily getting out of bed and grabbing his mask, he went to find the cause of the noise and, lo and behold! Bad was in the kitchen with a pot on his head and a wooden spoon in his hand. The demon-like boy sheepishly smiled up at Dream, ducking his head in apology, as he sat on the floor surrounded by even more pots and pans. Out of all that had happened so far, he was both thankful that Bad was safe and he hadn't tried to take any glasses or bowls from the cabinets; who knew what mess he'd have woken up to instead.

"Um, I was...I was trying to find a bowl that I could use for mixing and I saw it at the very back of that cupboard," Bad shyly said and pointed to the open cupboard where there was indeed a mixing bowl and nothing else. "Unfortunately, all of these pots and pans were in the way and I didn't want to make too much noise in case I woke you, so I—"

"So you tried to take it out without removing all of this." Dream finished his sentence, shaking his head at Bad's apologetic smile then returning it with a smile of his own as he helped him stand up. "You shouldn't worry so much, Bad. You and Skeppy make enough noise as it is when you make your nightly visits to the pantry and the living room."

"W-we do?" Bad's skin turned a shade lighter than black, an almost pink hue to it, as he turned away embarrassed. In an instant, he became a bumbling mess as he profusely apologised and gave empty promises of not making anymore noises when they visited. In his tired state, Dream couldn't pick up a word he was saying and simply yawned just as Bad finished. "I said it's alright, Bad. It's not that big of a deal."

"But, Dream—"

"Not to mention it's really late. What were you doing anyway?" He asked, peering around Bad to the counter. "Why did you need a mixing bowl?"

There was a wide grin on Bad's face as he excitedly spun around and procured a box from the counter. "I'm making muffins! I thought I'd try it out since the other night when Skeppy and I were watching TV, there was a person making muffins in the kitchen and I really wanted to try it!"

"Where did you get the muffin mix?" Dream asked, taking the box out of Bad's hand and inspecting it. "I don't remember buying this at the store."

"Oh! Well, um...Skeppy and I _may_ have gone to the shop ourselves when nobody was around."

"So you stole it?" Bad turned away from Dream, offering no confirmation as to whether he did steal the muffin mix or not. Not that he needed to since it was written all over his face. Dream made a mental note of his inability to lie as he handed back the box to Bad. "Whatever. I'm not going to tell anyone if you promise to give me one of the muffins when you're done."

"Of course, of course, of course!" Bad kicked some pots out of the way as he rushed to hug Dream, his tail curling around his arm. "I was going to do so anyway! Oh thank you, Dream! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"All good, Bad!" he choked out, struggling to breathe beneath Bad's insanely tight bear hug. When he was released, Dream took deep breaths in before saying, "I think it'd be better if we did this tomorrow."

"Do what tomorrow?"

"Bake muffins," Dream answered as he took the spoon out of Bad's hand and the pot off his head. "It's not that I don't trust you, Bad, but it would be better if I supervised you when you did. We don't want anymore accidents like this happening in the future, do we?"

"N...no, we don't," Bad glumly agreed. His tail was still curled around Dream, following wherever he moved around the kitchen until he loosened it and fall to the ground. Noticing this, Dream turned to look at Bad who quietly mumbled, "I just wanted to be able to do something for you and Skeppy..."

It was unfair on Dream for Bad to be acting like this; sad and dejected. "Hey, that's really nice of you to want to do something for us, but you need to understand why I'm suggesting we move this to tomorrow. You want to make the best muffins ever, right?" Bad nodded. "Then let me help you. The only thing I'll be doing is explaining what you need to do. Everything else will be all you, got it?"

"So I'm going to be making the muffins while you tell me what to do?"

"That's right."

"Mmm....okay!" Bad smiled and helped Dream pack away the mess he made. "Help me make the best muffins ever, Dream! I want to see the smile on both yours and Skeppy's faces when you eat them!"

"And Sapnap and George."

"And Sapnap and George!" Giggling from excitement, he hugged Dream one last time before heading to the back door. "Thank you, Dream! I'll see you in the morning!"

"See you in the morning, Bad. Say hi to Skeppy too for me, okay?"

"Of course! Bye~" Bad had almost made it out the door but suddenly turned around to stare quizzically at his face. "Um, Dream?"

"Yes, Bad?"

"Do you sleep with your mask on? Isn't that uncomfortable?"

Dream laughed. "No I don't sleep with it on, Bad. I was just wary that you might've been someone I didn't know."

"Oh okay!" Bad smiled in understanding. "Then see you later! And have a good sleep, Dream!"

"I'll try."

Finally hearing the door close, Dream let out a big yawn then returned to bed. Removing his mask and settling it on his bedside table, he closed his eyes and tried to fall back to sleep. He was completely drained after having to follow Sapnap and George all over town, seeing what there is to see and doing what there is to do. Before he knew it, it was already late at night and the sun had long since sunk below the horizon. When he was finally freed from his friends' clutches, he had collapsed onto his bed from exhaustion and was peacefully asleep until he woke up to Bad in the kitchen. Now he was ready to perform the same routine again of falling asleep however, no more than thirty seconds later a new noise from the kitchen tore him away from sleep.

Groaning, he rose to his feet and stumbled his way back to the kitchen, not caring to put on his mask thinking it was Bad again. In the darkness, he lazily called out, "Bad, I thought you were going home! Did you forget some...thing..."

His sentence trailed off as he looked around the room and saw nothing. There was no sign of Bad to be seen in the kitchen nor behind the counter. The noise he had heard earlier sounded like a thud or something falling to the floor, but there was nothing there. Puzzled, Dream began inspecting every inch of the room before noticing his fridge door slightly ajar.

"Hm....huh? WHA—?!" 

Upon opening the door, Dream spotted a fox doing its best to hide amongst the food. Then suddenly it made a break for him and tackled Dream over, knocking him to the floor before running off. Seeing only by the light of the fridge and the thin rays created by the moon, Dream chased after the fox as it raced around the house—weaving between table and chair legs, running around his feet, in and out of corners—before making its way to the backdoor, presumably the way it came in. However, the door was closed which confused Dream since there was no other way for the fox to have come in from, but he didn't worry about that. He was quickly gaining ground on the fox when it stopped before his backdoor and he pounced on it, grabbing it by the middle of its body. 

"Gotcha!" he shouted with triumph at finally having caught the intruder. Dream was all smiles for his victory until he felt it shift in his hands, seemingly growing bigger in size. Opening his eyes wide, he watched in horror as the small fox he had been holding onto was replaced with a person's foot. With a gulp, Dream gazed upward before locking eyes with a terror-filled boy, mouth hanging open and displaying his sharp fangs. Breathlessly, he said, "What the fuck?"

The orange-haired boy with fangs was too in shock to respond immediately, but when he did he pulled hard on his leg to get out of Dream's grip. "Let go of me!" he cried. "You're hurting my leg!"

Dream let go, much to the boy's relief, but quickly stood up to catch his arm with a grip that was less tight than he had held previously. "Who are you and what are you doing in my house? Wait..." Dream inspected his face further and the clothes he wore before his face lit up in recognition. "You're that guy at Wilbur's concert! You were his helper or something, weren't you?!"

The boy just stared back at Dream, his ears (which were still those of a fox) twitched and his tail lashed behind him in aggression although his hold on Dream wasn't that strong. He desperately tried to get out of his hold but Dream was too strong and eventually he gave up when Dream persisted with his questions. "YES, I AM WILBUR'S HELPER! STOP ASKING ME ALREADY AND LET ME GO!"

"I knew it!" Dream exclaimed, keeping the no longer mysterious but also somewhat mysterious boy at bay. Having finally recognised him, Dream asked, "So who are you? What's your name?"

"That's none of your business!" the boy snarled before yelping when Dream increased the pressure on his arm. "Okay, okay! My name is Fundy and I'm a friend of Wilbur's and his family! Happy now?!"

"I am now," Dream smirked, making Fundy gasp. "My name is Dream. Nice to meet you—"

"DREAM?!"

"Yes, Dream," he replied looking just a bit confused at Fundy's shocked face. "I know, I know, it's a weird name and all but hey, it's my name and I like it!"

"N-no, that's not what I meant!" Fundy shouted as he flailed his free arm before him. His eyes darted everywhere and occasionally to Dream's face but they never lingered. "You-you're Dream. Like, you're actually Dream?"

"Yes, I'm Dream. Is there something wrong with that?"

"But don't you...don't you..." Fundy struggled to spit out his words, making an audible gulp then saying, "Don't you wear a mask? A smiley mask or something that covers your entire face?"

Fear filled both boys but for entirely different reasons: Fundy because he was scared of what Dream might do to him now that he's seen his face, and Dream because it was the first time anyone but Bad had seen his scarred, broken face. His grip on Fundy loosened as his eyes went wide with panic as he rapidly tried to cover his face with his hands, eventually leaving Fundy to hide in his room. His door shut with a slam that sounded around his house while his shallow breaths filled the space he occupied, heart beating loud in his ears. Unsure of what to think, unsure of what to do, he clutched the mask he had left on his bedside table close to his chest.

"Dream...?" Fundy's voice came as a weak whimper from behind Dream's door. He felt bad. What else could he feel but bad? Fundy had just unintentionally seen Dream's face, something he had desperately been trying to keep secret for reasons Fundy could only imagine based on what he had witnessed. He had originally thought about leaving as soon as Dream found him in his house, but leaving him now when he was in such a state of panic and fear? It didn't sit right with him. "Dream, I'm sorry for seeing your face. It wasn't my intention, I promise you! I...the reason I came here is because...because I was looking for a place to stay."

"A place to stay?"

Fundy perked up at Dream's choked response, relief washing over him knowing he wasn't mad or too upset at him. "Yeah, a place to stay. Temporary, of course! You see, my home was kinda destroyed by some people and I've been looking for somewhere new ever since. I assure you, I didn't know you lived here! I just chose at random and it just so happened this was your house. Heck, I don't even know where Sapnap or George live since I only ever make trips to the farm and the shops and the forest—"

"You," Dream started, his voice a whisper, "how much of my face did you see? Did...did you see the scars?"

Fundy's heart sank. "Yeah, I saw them. I-I'm sorry, Dream. I didn't know it was you and I, I didn't know this was your house—"

"That's okay, Fundy," Dream said, interrupting his babbling with his own hoarse voice. "It, it was an accident, wasn't it? It was all an accident."

"R-right."

"Then it's okay." There was some shifting on Dream's end as he adjusted his position, sitting upright against the door. "I'm sorry for the way I reacted, Fundy. I didn't mean to make you worry."

"You didn't, Dream. I mean, you did but you had a reason to react like that so..." Resting with his back to the door too, Fundy sighed and hung his head low, ears drooping. "I'm just really sorry, man. If I had known it was you then, I don't know, maybe I would've stayed as a fox or something... Fuck!"

Dream felt Fundy hit his head against the door and smiled a little at his words. "How are you a fox anyway? If you don't mind me asking."

"Eh, I've always been a fox," Fundy said as he took the cap off his head and played with it, happy to change topics and distract their minds. "Ever since I was born. You know that park where Wilbur did his concert? Well, there's a forest that connects to it and that's where I was born."

"You were born there?"

"Yep. My family are kinda like guardians of the forest." He chuckled a little at Dream's gasp. "Yeah, it's not a big deal or anything. Our only job is to protect the forest and make sure everything is normal, you know, boring stuff."

"I'd hardly call being a guardian a boring job."

"You'd be surprised. Apart from our shape-shifting abilities there's little else that we can do."

"Still, that's a pretty cool ability. Can you only shape-shift into a fox?"

"Yep. A fox and that's about it," he murmured. "Which is why I'm bored of my job. There's not much I can do as a fox and I've always found the human life to be a bit more interesting. Don't get me wrong though, being a fox has its perks and all but there's just something about being a human that is...is just great."

"Like what? Paying taxes and earning a living in a dead-end job you hate?" Dream joked.

"No not that!" Fundy joined in his laughter. "But as a fox I don't need to do any of that. I just take what I need from people who don't need them and live where I want."

"And help Wilbur."

"And help Wilbur," he repeated. "I appreciate everything he's done for me. After a rocky start, he helped me grasp an understanding of the human world and how to act, how to live.... Basically, everything I needed to know to live on my own!"

"But now you've been kicked out of your home?" Fundy hummed in affirmation. "Then why don't you live with Wilbur? You said you were good friends with him, so why not move to his town?"

"Because I'm a guardian of the forest here which means I can't leave. If I do then I'm at risk of possibly being hunted, killed, and losing my power entirely! At least, that's what I've been told."

His last sentence was said so quietly, Dream had trouble hearing what he said. When he had processed all that he said, Dream said a silent 'oh' and sighed. "I guess you haven't tried leaving then."

"Yeah..."

"There's no way to avoid it? To avoid losing your power, I mean."

"There is," Fundy replied after a little thought. "But it's not easy. Have you ever heard of Enchanted Apples?"

"Yeah, I have," Dream said with a chuckle. "When I was younger, my friend and I used to go on quests to find them in the forest near out town. We didn't find any though."

"Yeah, they're extremely rare. In fact, they're so rare some have believed that they don't even exist!"

"Do they?"

"Of course they do! They're just really hard to find. But," Fundy said with a little excitement in his voice, "they're the exact thing that I'd have to eat if I wanted to leave this town! It would only be for a short amount of time since its effects wouldn't last my entire lifetime, but even just exploring outside the town's gates or venturing to Wilbur's town would be good enough for me."

Dream nodded, smiling at his dream. "What about Golden Apples? They're more common than Enchanted ones and they have similar effects, don't they?"

"They do, but I'd have to eat a LOT of them to make the journey and between you and me," he whispered, "I'm not a huge fan of them. Sure, they're helpful and taste delicious but once you've had two or three, they start to taste like butter."

"Like butter?!" Dream cackled.

"Yeah! It's disgusting! Look, if I ever find more of them I'll give some to you to taste and see how you like them!"

"I think I will!" Laughing some more, Dream exhaled a happy sigh. "So if you don't like apples, what do you like?"

"Chicken, steak, pork, spider eyes, mutton, berries, bones—"

"Wait, wait, wait! Did you just say _spider eyes_?!"

"Yes," Fundy said in a deadpan tone. "I don't understand why everyone is so against them. They're delicious! And nutritious."

"But they're spider eyes!"

"Oh my fucking God.... You can't say you don't like them when you haven't tried them!"

"I don't have to try them to know I won't like them! Fundy...you do realise that if I, a human being, ate spider eyes, I could die from it."

"Not if you eat the ones I make!" There was a rustle of a bag as Fundy pulled out his favourite delicacy. "They're specially made for human consumption with no side effects whatsoever! I made them for Wilbur and his family to try but he has yet to tell me how it went."

"I can only imagine why he hasn't said anything."

"Hey, don't patronise me!" Fundy snarled as he popped an eye into his mouth. "Mm, mm, mm! Delicious!"

"Sure." Rolling his eyes, Dream stood up and looked down at his mask. Even after talking with Fundy and learning more about him, he still felt insecure about his face. Debating whether he should put the mask on or not, the door to his room opened slightly. Turning around, he didn't spot Fundy until he looked down. "Fundy? Why are you a fox now?"

To his surprise, Fundy the fox spoke. "Because I don't think you could look me in the face without your mask on. You didn't seem to care not wearing your mask when I was a fox, so I thought, you know, maybe this is fine?"

His sentence was more of a question, but Dream appreciated his concern and bent down on one knee to pat his head. "Thank you, Fundy. That's sweet of you."

"S-sweet?!" Despite being in fox form, Dream could see the horror in Fundy's face as he screamed and bared his teeth. "I'm not sweet! I'm vicious! I'm terrifying! I'm....I'm..."

"A fox."

"Yeah, a fox! So I'm not sweet, okay? I'm scary!"

Fundy let out a surprised yip as Dream picked him up, holding him before his face before cradling him in his arms. "Sure you are, Fundy. Very scary indeed."

He laughed as Fundy struggled in his arms, twisting and writhing to leave. Eventually, he calmed down when Dream began petting him and let a quiet purr escape him. Pawing at him softly, Fundy posed a question. "Dream?"

'Yes, Fundy?"

"Could I...could I stay with you for tonight? Just for tonight only! Then I'll find a new place to stay and not bother you again and leave you in peace, but just for tonight could I possibly stay with you? Please?"

Puppy dog eyes are one thing, but fox eyes are far worse in Dream's opinion. He agreed that seeing Fundy in fox form without his mask wasn't as stressful as seeing him in human form, but seeing his sad, pleading eyes look straight into his own melted his heart like no other. "Yes, you can stay for the night, Fundy. I'll even help you find a new place tomorrow, if you'd like."

"Really?! You don't have to though. I'm fine searching on my own."

"Mm yeah, but I'm interested to see what kind of places you like. And what if I want to visit? I'd have no idea where you lived if I didn't come with you, would I?"

"I'd send you a letter or something with my address on it. Or text you if you give me your number. You don't have to join me."

"Are you trying to get rid of me?"

"NO!" Fundy screeched, his voice turning into a fox's shriek halfway through. Returning to purring in Dream's arms, Fundy mulled over the thought of finding a home with him and growled while rolling his eyes. "Fine. You can help me find a new home. But it has to be secret and well-hidden! I don't want to lose it like my old one."

"Of course, Fundy. I'll tell nobody of your home."

"You promise?"

"I promise." He smiled down at the fox when something clicked in his head. "Hey, Fundy, do you have a dream?"

"You mean like what Tommy and Tubbo wished for or those weird dolls you make?" Fundy cackled at Dream's frown, slightly upset that his dolls were once again called 'weird'. "I'm just messing with you, Dream. They're not weird in the slightest. I'm sure everybody has, at some point, said they were cute and I agree. To an extent, of course."

"So do you have one?"

"One what?"

"A dream."

"Well, I've already explained my wish to leave this town and explore more of the world," Fundy said matter-of-factly. "Apart from that, I don't know what else I want. I guess a permanent home wouldn't be too bad..."

"What's your dream home then?" Dream asked, sitting on the edge of his bed while still petting Fundy. "If you were to live in a house that had anything and everything in it, what would it look like?"

"A big bed. Just a massive bed that, like, covers the entire house floor. That'd be pretty neat."

"That's it? A big bed?"

"Hang on, hang on! I'm not done yet!" Fundy shouted, rolling onto his back in Dream's arms and closing his eyes in thought. "Hm...I also want a couch. My old one got ruined because of trespassers, so it'd be nice to have a new one. Oh! And I'd like to have a room for me to mess with technology and shit."

"Technology? Right, you were in charge of the lights and sound at the concert, weren't you?" Fundy waggled his foot in affirmation, making Dream laugh. "Anything else you'd wish your home to have?"

"Just the basics like a kitchen, I guess. Man, you would not believe how much of the food I find gets spoiled because I don't have a fridge. It really sucks, you know!" Earning another chuckle from Dream, Fundy grinned before his smile faded, his face becoming more pensive and sombre. "Dream, I...actually don't care about what my dream house has."

Dream furrowed his brows and looked curiously down at Fundy. "You don't?"

He shook his head. "No. Sure, it'd be nice if my dream house had all those stuff, but there's nothing I want more than for my dream house to be permanent. Like, it doesn't get destroyed or ruined and can withstand anything or anyone has to throw at it." He sniffled as his eyes grew bleary from expected tears, pawing at them in an attempt to hide them. "I just want a home, Dream. A home where I'm safe no matter what happens. A home I can come back to without fear of it ever disappearing. That's not too much to ask for, is it?"

Dream watched as his little body shook in his arms, sniffling fox noises coming from behind his little fox paws. Cradling him close, Dream hushed him softly. "Shhh...it's okay. Everything's going to be okay. Everything you've wished for, Fundy, they're all good wishes, good things to dream for."

"...They are?"

"Mhm, they are. And remember what I said earlier? What I promised earlier? I said I'd help you find a house, didn't I?"

"You did."

"Then that's what I'm going to do. We're going to find you a house that is so perfect, so secret and so magnificent that you'll, uh, you'll burst into tears at the sight of it!"

"I'm going to cry when we find this so called perfect house?"

"Yup! That's how good it is! Now cheer up! We both have a big day tomorrow and—" Dream gasped at the time on his phone—"it's literally nearly five a.m. How the fuck did we stay up so late?!"

Fundy shrugged between steady breaths, one breath turning into a wide yawn as he said, "I have no fucking clue. But you're right. It is pretty late and I—" he yawned again—"I'm getting pretty tired."

"Same here." Dream said, stifling a yawn. Placing Fundy on his bed, Dream crawled underneath the covers and watched Fundy stretch before jumping to the floor. "Hey, where are you going?"

"To the couch. What, you think I'm going to sleep in the same bed as you?" Fundy grinned at Dream's embarrassed face before reaching the door. "Besides, I don't want to be a fox anymore so I need more room."

"Oh, alright then. Here, let me get you some blankets then—"

"Nah, don't bother. You already look snug in that bed of yours and I've done my fair share of snooping in this town, so I'm sure I can find the blankets just fine." Again, there was Fundy's mischievous grin as he pushed the door open with his paw. "Well goodnight, Dream! See ya tomorrow!"

"Goodnight, Fundy," Dream replied, already half asleep. He heard the scurrying of Fundy's paws shift to heavier and more steady footsteps before he succumbed to the sleep he so desperately needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp. Here you go XD not the best chapter, sorry, but I'll do better in the next one! (this one I had so many ideas that I couldn't fit in and it kinda got out of hand). Still, I hope you liked this one and look forward to the next! 
> 
> (out of all that I wrote here, I liked when Dream found Bad in his kitchen. I was at least sane when I was writing that part, I think XD I did neither Fundy nor Dream justice in this chapter and I'd redo it if need be. But for now, this is what we're working with. Sorry!)


	8. Live the Sweet Side of Life

"Dream."

"Dream."

"Dream."

"Dream."

"Dream!"

"Dream!"

"Dream!"

"Dream!"

"DREAM!"

"DREAM!"

"D R E A M!!!"

"D R E A M!!!"

"DRRREEEAAAM!!!!"

"DRRREEEAAAM!!!!"

"DRRRREEEEEEEEAAAAAAAM!!!!!!"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!!!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, pure frustration hidden behind his mask as he stared daggers at his noisy friends trying to get his attention. Their screeching was replaced with boisterous laughter leaving the blond annoyed and baffled while he continued sewing up a doll. "Why the hell are you guys being so loud today?"

Clasping a hand on Dream's shoulder, George pulled him away from his bench and looked him in the eyes of his mask. "Dream, we've been trying to get your attention for the past 20 minutes and you wouldn't respond which is why we had resorted to yelling."

"Yeah, Dream, what's up with you?" Coming to stand on his left, Sapnap put his hand on Dream's other shoulder and questioned him, making brief eye contact with George. "Are you tired or something?"

At his question, Dream nodded and attempted to shrug off their hands but they wouldn't move to which he yawned. "Yeah, something like that. I had a visitor come by and I didn't end up sleeping until five a.m. so I'm a little tired."

George and Sapnap shared a confused look, Sapnap being the one to break the silence. "A visitor? Was it Bad and Skeppy again?"

"No, it was somebody else." Another tired yawn escaped him as he made to cover his muffled yawn, jumping when he felt someone's hands around his wrist. Looking up he saw George and tilted his head in confusion before noticing the needle still in his hand. "O-oh...thank you, George." 

Gingerly putting the needle down, he turned to thank George properly but was interrupted by the Brit instead. "You need to get more sleep, my guy. You shouldn't be awake and working right now. Come on!" he said enthusiastically as he pulled Dream out of his chair. "Let's get you back to bed!"

"I'm fine, really!" He struggled to pull his arm back when Sapnap joined in pushing from behind. "Guys! My friend is still inside and I don't think he'd be very pleased to have other people around without him knowing!" _Especially if he's still a fox._

"That explains the late night visit if he's a friend." Reaching to open the door, George heard the light scampering of feet inside. "Sounds like your friend is awake. Did you wake up before him, Dream?"

"Is that such a problem?" When nobody responded, Dream sighed and began to explain. "When he arrived, he was very tired and ended up sleeping on the couch. Please, guys, let's leave him alone in case he's not...not..."

"Not what, Dream?" Sapnap asked, raising a brow. "Not _decent_? Not _appropriate_ for our eyes?"

Dream's cheeks flushed a light shade of pink, understanding what Sapnap was insinuating. In an effort to keep Fundy's secret a secret, he attempted to keep his voice straight as he said, "Something like that...."

"Ooh~ Does little Dweamy-poo have a boyfriend?" George teased, ignoring the hands of his captured friend as he turned the handle of the door and pushed it open. 

It was dark. Darker than it was meant to be since the sun was now high in the sky and the house should have been bathed in warm, natural light. Instead, it was dark, cool and filled with a most peculiar noise unknown to the three boys. Short, high-pitch trills came from within a room to their left, a room Dream points out as his bedroom. "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I moved him into my room because I didn't think the couch would be comfortable enough. I'm surprised he's still sleeping though."

"Who is this guy? Do we know him?" George had already begun peeping inside the room, pushing the door ever so slightly and revealing more darkness. "And why does he sound like that? Doesn't sound human at all."

Indeed, the trill-like snores were unusual and sounded more like a whimpering dog. Stepping closer inside the room, both Sapnap and George felt tugs on their arms and turned back to see Dream, unaware of the desperate expression he had hidden beneath his mask. In a hushed whisper he said, "We shouldn't be disturbing him while he's asleep! I'll introduce you to him later but please, let's just leave him alone for now."

"Aw but, Dream~" Not listening to his pleas, Sapnap removed the hand holding his arm and took a step back into the room. "We have the right to know who your _boyfriend_ is, don't we George?"

"Absolutely!" he exclaimed softly, stretching out each syllable. Already having past the door-frame, George and Sapnap giggled like the children they were and turned on the light. The whole room was illuminated in a white light showing off everything from the dresser beneath a window to the mass of cloths and fabrics sitting on a desk with a few scraps littering the ground around a chair. Everything in the room was neat and tidy except for the desk, the chair...

And the bed.

"Uh, Dream?" Dragging the hooded man into the room, Sapnap pointed to the mass of blankets on his bed. "Why do you have so many blankets on your bed? And why are they shaped like that? You trying to build a nest out of them?"

Dream looked to see the blankets formed into a mound of sorts with no sight of where it starts nor where it ends. In a dome-like fashion, it wasn't big enough to fit a human being inside even if they curled themselves into a fetal position making Dream dread all the more at the thought of Fundy's secret being found out. It didn't help either when the fox's snoring could be heard loud and clear from beneath the blankets nor did it help when Dream, if he squinted hard enough, could see the small muzzle of his fox friend poking out so he could breathe.

Quite unsure about how to distract his friends and move them away from the snoring blankets, he failed to see Sapnap's quirky grin as he stepped closer to the bed and reach underneath. "Wow! This thing is _furry_! What are you trying to hide here, Dream~? A stuffed toy? Or maybe some other toy—AGH!!!"

Without warning, Sapnap cried out in pain and drew his hand back. Light, red bite marks were left on both sides of his hand as he held it in the other, shock written all over his face as he, George and Dream watch the pile of blankets move and writhe about until eventually it stopped. Staring between each other, Sapnap backed up towards the door while shaking his head. "Dream, what the fuck are you hiding in there?!"

"I told you to leave him alone!" Sighing because he wasn't able to keep Fundy a secret, he settled with an excuse he hopes his friends will believe while standing between them and his fox friend who had stopped snoring having just been abruptly (and quite rudely) woken up. "He's a fox and he came into my house last night looking for shelter, I think. He seemed pretty shaken but also tame so I let him stay the night. I was going to find a new home for him today but he didn't wake up until now."

There was a soft nuzzle against his hand when he made to sit down. Looking down, he saw Fundy stick his face out the tiniest bit and look up at him with warm, brown eyes. Dream offered a reassuring nod as a way of telling him he'll keep his secret before turning his attention back to his human friends. "And that's about it, really. Why do you guys look so shocked?"

Still cradling a sore hand (Fundy's bite wasn't hard enough to draw blood), Sapnap's eyes darted between Dream's face and the fox's before sighing exasperatedly. "You attract all sorts of strange creatures, you know that?"

"And that's why you're my friend, Sapnap," he retorted with a sly smile.

"You may say it's strange," George interrupted Sapnap right as he was about to argue back, "but I think it's rather cute." Taking a step closer to inspect the creature, he asked, "Does it have a name?"

"A name?!" Sapnap cried out. "Why on _earth_ would Dream give it a name?!"

"Well, why not? It's living with him, isn't it?"

"Actually, he isn't—" 

There came another nudge from the fox as he pushed himself out from beneath the blankets and into Dream's lap, rolling over and turning in circles before finally curling up and napping. All was silent as they gazed at the spectacle that just happened, George 'awwing' and Sapnap huffing when they heard a low, gentle purr being emitted from the small fox. "Aww, now you HAVE to give it a name!"

 _A name? How am I supposed to name somebody who already has a name?_

The longer he sat in silence the more George cooed at the fox, tickling his tummy and stroking his ears making Fundy go limp and purr louder. Sapnap was disinterested in it all, preferring to inspect more of Dream's room while he had the chance although he found nothing of interest. When George looked back to see Dream still thinking, he shrugged his shoulders and smiled. "It's okay if you can't think of one. You said you were going to find a new home for it, weren't you?"

"Its."

"Sorry?" George asked, tilting his head slightly. "What did you say?"

"I said Its. That's his name. Its."

"'Its'?" Now his face was one of disbelief, Sapnap sharing the same sentiment at the ridiculous name. "You want to call it 'Its', do you?"

Dream could do nothing but nod, looking down at the creature in his lap when he kicked him lightly with his foot. "Is that a bad name?"

"I mean, it's pretty bad if you think about it. Who calls their pet Its? It's such a weird name."

"Well, he's not my pet so it doesn't matter!" Making sure he had a good hold on Fundy, Dream stood up and made for the door. "If it's such a bad name, why don't you come up with one?"

"Um..." Lost in thought, George was oblivious to the gasps and shouts of 'oohs' and 'ahhs' from Sapnap who had just ransacked Dream's drawer of underwear. He was also oblivious to Dream shouting at Sapnap to put his stuff back while a wild Fundy jumped down from Dream's hands and wandered into the kitchen looking for some food. The raucous noise of the two boys and the dead silence from George was broken by the clanging of pots and pans hitting the floor followed by a loud 'FUCK!' from whoever had created that noise. "Hey, guys, did you hear that—"

"—Yes, George, we did," Sapnap responded, rolling his eyes. "Come on! Let's see what that was about!"

Following Sapnap into the kitchen, they found a hurt boy with orange hair sitting on the floor with a pot on his head, a scene all too familiar to Dream as he recalled the previous night's events. "Fundy!" he exclaimed as he rushed to help him out. "Are you okay? What were you doing?"

Seeing the other in his human form brought some relief to Dream, but the fox-boy still had his ears and tail out hidden only by the pot he currently wore on his head and also because he was facing towards the crowd of staring eyes, keeping his tail stock still in shock. After some grumbling and exchanged hushed words between him and Dream about his appearance, Fundy groaned and retracted his fox-features. "I'm alright, Dream. Just had a nasty accident."

"I can see that. But what were you doing? Why were you looking in that cupboard?"

"I was looking for food and I thought you might've had something nice in there." He pointed his nose into the air and sniffed, directing himself back towards the cupboard. "There's something sweet in there and I want to eat it!"

Dream followed his nose and saw the ingredients to Bad's muffin recipe. He watched as Fundy remove a punnet of berries, opening it swiftly and about to pop one into his mouth before stopping him and taking them out of his hands. "Sorry, Fundy, but these aren't for you. They're for Bad and he's going to use them for muffins."

"Can I please have one?" Fundy begged, inching a hand closer to the container of red fruit. "Only one and that's it? I haven't eaten in _days_!"

"How are you still alive?" Sapnap commented, reminding the two boys they weren't alone. "Oh hey, I know you! You're that guy that helped Wilbur with his performance!"

"Yeah, I am," Fundy said with a big yawn, stretching his arms out wide as he tried to steal a berry. He failed as Dream quickly took them away, earning a glare from the orange-haired boy. "The name's Fundy and I'm hungry. _Really_ hungry. Can I have a berry?"

Dream shook his head. "No. These are for Bad. I already said that."

"Aw, come on, Dream! Can't he have just one?" Sapnap asked as he, too, tried to take a berry from Dream but failed also. "It's not like Bad's going to miss one berry!"

"I don't know who you're talking about," Fundy said, stuffing his hands in his pockets, "but your friend's right. He won't miss one berry, would he?"

"Well...no, I don't think he would. But that's beside the point!" Putting the berries back into the cupboard Fundy took them from, Dream began returning the pots and pans to their rightful places and shut the doors. "If you're really that hungry, Fundy, then you can come with me into town for some food. Since you're awake we can also look for a home for you and—"

"You mean for the fox, right?"

Dream turned to George who looked at him curiously, realising almost too late what he had just said. "Oh yes! For the fox! Sorry, it's just that Fundy was also helping me look after Its since he was the one to have brought him here. Right, Fundy?"

"Yeah, something like that," he said, rolling his eyes at Dream's poor excuse. "Shall we go get that food now? I can feel my insides eat away at me."

"Right, let's go." Ushering people out of his home, Dream stood close to Fundy and whispered, "I vaguely remember you snacking on something last night. What happened to those?"

"What, these?" Fundy pulled out of his pocket a small bag and shook it about. "They're spider eyes, remember? You can have some if you'd like."

"N-no thanks. I've already eaten." Dream eyed as Fundy shrugged and put them back in his pocket then asked, "Why don't you eat those? You said you were hungry."

"I did. But who am I to refuse free food?"

**———————**

The group soon arrived to the centre of town. Having travelled around it just yesterday, Dream remembered where most shops were and began leading Fundy up and down the streets in search of suitable food for him to eat. Or to be more specific, food that would satisfy Fundy.

Every shop they passed by, every store they pointed out, Fundy would turn his head away and grumble, mimicking movement as though he were lashing his tail. At first, Dream thought it rather cute to see the boy act upon his natural instincts but it soon grew tiresome as they went through all the food shops they could find, each one not being to Fundy's liking. He was close to giving up and leaving Fundy to find his own food when the fox-boy suddenly stopped outside a bakery, his eyes closed and nose pointed to the air, a pleasant smile on his face. Sharing a look of confusion, the trio watched as Fundy seemingly let out a low purr and make his way slowly into the shop, the smell of freshly baked bread made more prominent by the opening of the front door that was accompanied with the chime of a bell. With no choice but to follow him, the trio made their way inside and gasped in awe. 

The bakery, although small, had wall to wall shelves full of bread and pastries, each tray holding a small and cute, floral sign stating what it is and its price. There were a few flowers growing in the corners and windows of the building, but their scent was overpowered by the delicacies on display and being made behind the counter in the kitchen. A window between the counter and the kitchen showed a woman hard at work kneading dough and a man decorating the many cakes and desserts lined up beside him. Behind the counter was a young girl with long, blonde hair tied back in a bun, blue dungarees, a white shirt as well as a black long sleeved shirt underneath. If the room weren't cheery enough as it was with the flowers and food, her smile certainly made things happier as she beamed at the boys. "Good afternoon, sirs! How may I help you?"

Fundy was already eyeing every item in the shop, Dream now noticing his sharp teeth. He was glad his friends hadn't noticed this detail but nevertheless felt fear grip him in case they do. His thoughts were disrupted by the girl calling out to him, asking if he was okay and needed help. "I'm alright, thank you. I'm just here for my friend—"

"DREAM!" He felt his head pound at his name being yelled in the small space, turning around to see Fundy pointing at a berry pie with a crisp pastry crust and pastry strips forming a criss-cross pattern on top. "Can we get this, please? _Pleeeeaaaasssee_?"

Watching him practically beg on his hands and knees, Dream chuckled lowly and carefully took the pie out, aware of Fundy's excited shouts of joy. Approaching the counter, he placed the pie between himself and the girl and pulled out his wallet. "I'll just be taking this, thank you. Um, it's $14.50 for the whole thing, right?"

"That's right, sir!" the girl responded cheerfully. Her voice, like her smile, was sweet as she busied herself putting the pie into a suitable container for Dream to carry and it was then he noticed how much she smiled around him. Her smile never faltered even when they locked eyes together nor when they waved goodbye. It was always there ready to see him again. 

Which made him smile.

"Hey, Dream!" 

From behind, his friends' voices called out to him and he realised he had left the shop unknowingly. Coming to a halt beside some outdoor chairs and a table used by the bakery to seat customers, Dream placed down Fundy's order and took a seat, watching the others follow suit. Out of the three, Fundy was the first to dig into the berry pie—not at all interested in the way Dream looked dazed and aloof—and hummed in delight. "Ooh~ this tastes so good! Dream, Dream! You must try some! It's absolutely to _die_ for!"

Too caught up in his own thoughts, Dream didn't respond to his comments. He didn't move when Fundy waved a small, bite-size piece of the dessert in front of his face nor when he reached to remove the clasp that held his mask in place. It was only because of Sapnap that he was saved from having to defend his image, slowly returning to reality which involved a very sour Fundy growling inhumanely at Sapnap who glared right back at the fox-boy and a very concerned George who analysed him from behind those big sunglasses he wore. It was because of that face as well as the actions of his two other friends that brought Dream to the realisation of what just occurred inside the bakery. 

Standing up and readjusting his mask, he began making his way back to the bakery's door when a hand came to his wrist, pulling slightly. George's voice was laced with worry as he asked, "Dream, is everything alright?"

"Everything's alright, George," he replied almost monotonously. Taking his hand away, he reached for the door and heard its familiar bell jingle when he opened it. "I just have a few questions I need to ask that girl."

"Would one of those questions be for her phone number?" George laughed at Dream's deadpan expression he knew he was giving, returning to his friends squabbling at the table. "Alright, you two, what're you fighting over?"

Sapnap's face was red with anger as he pointed an accusatory finger at Fundy. "HE WAS ABOUT TO TAKE DREAM'S MASK OFF WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION!!!"

"IS THAT SUCH A BAD THING?!" Fundy argued back. "I JUST WANTED TO HAVE HIM TASTE THE PIE! Seriously, I wasn't going to take the mask off _completely_."

"You were still doing it without his permission!"

"Oh, come on! You speak as if you've **never** seen his face before! Why wouldn't he be comfortable having it off with you two around?!"

"..........."

"..........."

"....................."

 **"WHAT?!** "

**———————**

"Ah, sir! Welcome back! How may I help you?"

She was still there with that sweet and full of sunshine smile on her face. Eyes bright and full of life, Dream only became more perplexed as he approached the counter. Why was this girl not bothered by his mask? Why was she being so kind when everyone previous wasn't? While he stood there at the counter in silent thought, the girl cleared her throat and asked, "Is everything alright, sir? Were you happy with your order?"

"My order? Ah yes! My order was perfectly fine, thank you..."

"...Okay. Was there anything else you would like? We don't have much in the way of drinks but I'm sure we can bring something out that you may like!"

"Don't you think I'm weird?"

"I beg your pardon?"

Her smile disappeared in a flash. It made Dream wince thinking he made the mistake of asking, but he had to know. He had to know why she didn't seem fazed by his appearance even if it was just common customer service. Now that he thinks about it, it was most likely for that reason she smiled so much. What a fool he's making himself out to be—

"—Um, sir? If it's of any consolation, I don't think you're weird."

"Y-you don't?"

She shook her head. "No, not at all! I think you're really pretty, actually. You're unique and I mean that in the most kindest way possible."

 _I'm pretty?_ "What makes you think I'm pretty? You haven't seen my face before."

The girl's smile returned to her face, Dream's worries and anxious thoughts vanishing away instantly. "I don't need to see your face to know you're pretty. I watched how you and your friends were together and saw you buy that pie for them too. To me, that's what makes a person beautiful which is why you're beautiful. What you look like shouldn't matter compared to your actions."

Her words struck Dream to his core. He had never been called pretty before, let alone _beautiful_. "Th...thank you. Thank you very much. I...thank you."

"You're welcome!" she chirped. "My name is Nihachu but everyone calls me Niki. What's your name?"

"My name's Dream. Nice to meet you, Niki."

"Nice to meet you too, Dream. I hope we can be good friends."

"Y-yeah! I hope so too." Goodness knows how many times Dream's mask has saved him from exposing his blushing face but his stutter was another problem. Trying to laugh it off, he was glad to hear Niki join in too and relaxed to their soft chuckles filling the space between them. It did little, however, to ease what remaining awkwardness there was as he nervously asked, "So...you work in a bakery?"

As he mentally kicked himself in the head, Niki giggled then nodded. "Yes! I do work at a bakery, Dream, ahaha! So glad you noticed!" Before Dream could have a chance to redeem himself with what may be another embarrassing act, Niki saved him with a question of her own. "What do you do, Dream? Do you have a hobby or a job or something?"

"Well, uh, I guess you could call it my job but it's more of a hobby..." 

Noticing her piqued curiosity, Dream explained about his stand and his interest in making Dream dolls. Again, to his surprise, she wasn't put off by his obsession with dolls nor his vision in helping other's with their dreams. She, in fact, was very supportive of his idea and even complimented on his selfless task. "That's a lovely idea, Dream! It's so nice to hear you want to help others like that. It's quite similar to what I want to do, actually."

"Really?" he asked enthusiastically, leaning over the counter ever so slightly. "What is it you want to do? If that's alright with me asking."

"I don't mind at all," she replied. A laugh escaped her as she spoke, finding humour in her choice of words. "I suppose my _dream_ is to make other people happy. I won't go into detail why but I want to be the person people can count on, who can be there for them when they need it and can cheer them up too. It's a difficult dream, I know, because you can't be happy always, but I really do want to do the best I can to help them. No one deserves to be sad forever, right?"

Suddenly, everything made sense to Dream; her constant sunshine-like smile, her kind and genuine words reinforced by her sweet and gentle voice. The passion and reason that came with hearing her dream was the final piece in the jigsaw puzzle Dream had been trying to figure out since meeting her and at last, he got it.

And he smiled.

"That is a beautiful dream, Niki. By far one of the most beautiful and selfless dreams I've heard from anybody who has come to my stand."

"Thank you, Dream," she said with her signature smile. "I really appreciate that."

Such a soft, happy moment as this should only be disturbed by nothing. This would've been the case as Dream and Niki continued to smile at each other, but unfortunately the three boys outside thought differently as George and Sapnap stormed inside while dragging a resistant Fundy behind. When they had reached the counter, George spun Dream on the spot and glared from behind his glasses. "What the hell, Dream?! How could you do this to us?!"

"Do what to you? What have I done this time?" Looking to Fundy and Sapnap for an explanation, his eyes widened. "Sapnap! What are you doing to him?! Let go of him now!"

"Come on, George!" Sapnap shouted, not paying attention to Dream and even less attention to Fundy's squirming body. "Let's go talk in _private_ with Dream about how bad of a friend he is to us."

"A bad friend? What are you guys on abou—"

"—He's not a bad friend!" Niki argued above the boy's calls. "He's actually really nice and you two should know this since you're his friends, aren't you?"

"We are," George said, still holding a grip on Dream's hoodie, "but he's got some explaining to do."

"A **lot** of explaining," Sapnap added as he began dragging his victim across the floor and to the exit. "Sorry about this, but we're going to have to go now. Don't worry though! We'll bring Dream back so that you two can continue your little 'date'."

"Date? We're not dating—"

"Shut it, Dream!" Somewhat dragging, somewhat leading him out of the bakery, George turned back to Niki and said, "We promise not to hurt him much! I'm sure by now he's already told you about his stand, right?" After receiving a concerned nod, George smiled. "Good. Then we'll be seeing you again sometime soon. Goodbye! Say goodbye to your girlfriend, Dream."

"She's not my girlfriend, George, she's just my friend." He shook his head when it seemed like George wasn't listening to him then turned back to Niki. "See ya, Niki! Hope to see you soon under different circumstances!"

"Same here, Dream! See you!"

As they left the bakery, George took one last look back at Niki then whispered to Dream, "She seems like a really nice person. Bubbly, sweet...is that what you're into?"

"Shut up, George. For the last time, we are not dating!"

"Then why did you talk with her for so long? Couldn't have been anything important, could it?"

"Why, are you jealous?" A grin made its way onto his face as he found himself gaining the upper-hand in their conversation, seeing the slightly flustered but mostly annoyed face of his friend. "Don't worry, George. No one compares to you in terms of my love for you."

"Is that supposed to be a compliment?"

"Maybe. I would say the exact same thing to Sapnap if he were here but he seems preoccupied with Fundy right now."

"So you love us both equally, is that it?"

"Are you not happy with being on the same level as Sapnap with my love?" His smile broadened as he leaned in closer to George's red face, enjoying how he seemingly squirmed beneath him. "Aw, look at you getting so embarrassed! Didn't think you felt that way about me, haha!"

"Sh-shut up!" Yanking Dream forward, George walked on ahead in an attempt to both catch up with Sapnap and Fundy and to run away from Dream's flirtatious comments. "Once we get back you're in so much trouble, mister!"

"Sounds like fun to me!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, but here we are! A new person, a new dream with plenty more to come! :D I've already figured out who'll come next so I hope you look forward to who it is! 
> 
> If there are any mistakes, please tell me and I'll fix them as soon as possible!
> 
> Thank you for reading this far and I hope you have a wonderful day/night/evening! ^0^


	9. Black and White

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translator used: https://lingojam.com/AlienLanguage
> 
> Translations are written at the end. Please note that you do not need to know what is said as they don't mean anything to the story/chapter apart from character building and comedy :P
> 
> Thank you for your patience and I hope you enjoy! ^-^

"Alright, Dream, I'm going to make this simple. Either you tell us everything you know or we force it out of you."

"And how are you going to force the truth out of me, Officer Sapnap? Are you going to torture me? Bribe me? _Seduce_ me~?"

"If it comes down to it, yes." Sapnap placed a hand under Dream's chin, tilting his head ever-so-slightly upwards to better look him in the eyes. Dream had half the mind to laugh at Sapnap's adoring eyes. The shenanigan play he and George were acting out was both ridiculous and amusing as they circled around his tied up self in a chair, the thin string they had used not proving to be much of a threat. "So what do you say, Dream? Are you going to tell us why you did it and why to him specifically?"

"Who? To Fundy?" Dream looked to the other side of the dimly lit room (thanks to George and Sapnap closing all the curtains and blinds in the room, using their phone's torches to light the room) and smiled at Fundy who was also tied up in a chair with a sour look on his face. He looked just about feral with the way he moved about restlessly, baring his teeth whenever George and Sapnap would turn their backs. They both knew he could easily turn into a fox to escape...actually, yeah. Why hasn't he turned into a fox yet? "How many times do I have to tell you it was an accident? Believe me, I would like to give you a better answer than that but it's the truth."

Sapnap gave a dubious look to George who only shrugged. "I suppose you are telling the truth," Sapnap said with a sigh. Turning back to Dream, he asked, "Does that mean you're still not comfortable with taking off your mask in front of us?"

"I...never said that," he cautiously replied. He wasn't entirely too sure whether he wanted to show them yet and remembering back to when Fundy had seen his face had his heart racing. "I don't know, guys, I just... It's not like I don't want to but also I can't bring myself to show you. I'm sorry."

"Dream," Sapnap started, coming to his side and crouching down to look into his face, "it's okay. You don't have to if you don't want to. We're not forcing you."

"He's right, Dream." From where Fundy was sitting, George gave a sympathetic smile as he spoke. "If you're uncomfortable with showing us then you don't have to. What, you think we're going to rip your mask off your face?"

"That thought has crossed my mind, not gonna lie."

He received a playful punch in the shoulder from Sapnap as he laughed at their exasperated eye-rolls. "Hey! We're not monsters!"

"You kind of are." All heads turned to Fundy who had been sitting quietly except for the occasional growl. "Considering how you dragged us both here and tied us to these chairs, I'd say you are like monsters."

"Technically, we only dragged _you_ here. Dream walked with us."

"Does that make you any less of a monster?! You still tied him up!"

***ding-dong!***

Everyone froze at the sound, George being the first to break the silence. "Was that...the doorbell?"

"I didn't even know you had one," commented Sapnap.

"Me neither," Dream agreed then stood up, instantly breaking the string that supposedly held him down. To a shocked Sapnap and George he said, "You two should think about what rope to use before interrogating a person. You don't want to end up with a prisoner breaking free and possibly hurting you, do you?"

As he walked past them, he stopped by Fundy to help loosen his bond. All the while, the doorbell kept ringing.

***ding-dong! ding-dong! ding-dong!***

From behind the locked door, there came the unmistakable voice of Bad as well as a very persistent knock. "Dream? Are you in there? Dreeaaam!!! DREEEEAAAAM!!!"

"How the hell did I make friends with so many noisy people?" Dream asked himself under his breath.

"You're one to talk," Fundy whispered back, giving his hands a little shake once they were free. "Thanks for that, Dream. I thought I was going to lose circulation at one point."

"You could've turned into a fox and escaped, couldn't you?"

"What, and miss the show?" Fundy asked, bewilderment written all over his face. "Have you _seen_ those two?! They're hilarious! Ah, but don't tell them I said that."

"Don't worry, I won't." After giving him a reassuring smile, Dream set off to answer the nearly beaten door or what should've been a beaten door given how harsh and constant Bad's knocking was. Opening the door with full force, he exclaimed, "I'm here, I'm here! Stop—" he took hold of Bad's still moving arm—"banging on the door."

"Dream!" In an instant, he was engulfed in a hug that he struggled to breathe through until Bad let go. Smiles and all, Bad was jumping up and down as he excitedly chanted, "Dream! Dream! Dream! Dream!"

Doing his best to hold back a laugh, he placed his hands on Bad's shoulders to stop his bouncing and shook his head. "Bad, what are you so excited about? No wait, let me guess. You found another muffin recipe you wanted to try out?"

"Another muffin recipe?"

"HU-PA-PA-BAH!!!" Bad waved his hands in front of Skeppy frantically before covering his ears and glaring at Dream. "He doesn't know anything about the muffins, Dream! It's a secret!"

"What's a secret?"

"HUSH, SKEPPY!!!" 

Bad grumbled at Skeppy's giggles, Dream raising an eyebrow at the two of them before focussing on the slightly shorter and trembling person at the back. Peering round the two bickering boys, Dream intended to get a better look at the other fellow only for them to...disappear? "Um, Bad? Who was that?"

"Who was who? Oh! That's—wait, where did he go?"

Still giggling, Skeppy covered Bad's eyes. "Guess who~"

"Skeppy!! That's not helpful! Help me find Ranboo, please."

"Ranboo? Is that his name?" Dream asked, looking across his front yard from where he stood.

"Yeah! And if Skeppy would stop covering my eyes," Bad aggressively said while forcibly removing Skeppy's hands from his face, "we could find him and introduce him to you!"

"Um, Bad—"

"—What is it, Skeppy?!"

"He's right here." 

Pointing behind him, Skeppy waved over Bad's shoulder who in turn, spun around and gasped. "Ah! Sorry, Ranboo! I didn't see you there."

".........."

Bad stared off to the side, his smiles never ceasing as he waited for a response, during which Dream peeked around the corner to get a glimpse of the person. ".... ! Bad? He's gone again."

"He's wha—! Skeppy! Where did he go?!"

"I don't know. He's probably at home."

"Can he travel that far?"

"Bad, we literally live underneath Dream's house. I don't think he'd have that hard of a time teleporting down there."

"Teleporting?" Dream's question drew both boys' attention back to him, Skeppy moving to stand behind Bad as though he was still shy around Dream. "What do you mean teleporting? Can Ranboo teleport?"

"Yeah! But he's pretty shy when it comes to people. Or anyone, actually. You didn't try to look at him, did you?"

"Was I not meant to?"

"Dang it!" Bad hissed out, face-palming himself while Skeppy giggled from behind. "Dang it, dang it, dang it! I forgot to tell you that he doesn't like it when people look at him. He finds it uncomfortable and he goes into hiding whenever someone does try to look."

"So he teleports away when somebody looks at him?"

"Yeah... Gosh darn it! Why didn't I tell you sooner?!"

"Because you were too busy with Skeppy, it seems." His suggestive comment earned a laugh from Skeppy—a small victory to Dream since he rarely interacts with him—and a baffled tilt-of-the-head from Bad. "So! When do we get to meet this Ranboo character? I'm sure once I've explained to the others what's up they'll want to meet him too."

"Well, hopefully today you'll get to meet him." Looking around, Bad tried to see if Ranboo was somewhere near the house but to no avail. "But I don't know if Ranboo is quite ready yet... We'll come when we can though!"

Skeppy nodded over Bad's shoulder, flashing a smile that Dream heartily returned. "Okay then. I'll see you later, I guess."

"Yep! See ya!"

"Bye, Dream..."

He watched as they disappeared beneath the ground, amazed, still, at how neatly the ground came back together as if they were never there at all. Confused but happy with seeing his friends again, Dream was just about to shut the door when his three other friends came barreling from behind and out the door. "Hey! Where are you going?!"

"We're going back home!" Sapnap shouted back as he tugged a whining Fundy down the path. "I don't know if you realised, Dream, but it's getting late and we have things to do!"

"Like each other?!" The glare and flushed faces he got from both George and Fundy was worth the comment as he waved goodbye to the trio.

**————————**

Why does everything happen at night?

It's a question Dream had never really considered since moving into this town but after meeting Bad and Skeppy, night-time events became a natural occurrence in his life. Some not so pleasant as others.

However, tonight could be considered a good one. Remembering to wear his mask before exiting his room, Dream tiptoed to the kitchen after hearing some sounds not unlike the crash and bang of pots and pans falling to the ground. It was during these moments he had considered relocating them to a different cabinet when he stopped short of the kitchen to see the elongated shadow of a person in his kitchen. Readying himself in case of a fight, Dream rounded the corner silently and was about to confront the person but fell silent at who he saw. 

Their head buried in the cabinet of food, they stood on top of a small pot that acted as a stepping stool given their tall frame. From where Dream stood, their skin was a ghostly white and reminiscent of a jellyfish. When he moved to get a better view of the person, Dream finds the clear divide of the person's skin; the white on his left side not merging with the black on his right. The black was like staring into the void save for the purple sparkles that emanates from him. Truly, Dream did not know what he was looking at.

Or if he was looking at anything at all.

In the blink of an eye, a warped sound filled the room and the person he was staring at just moments before had disappeared. It was only after a few more blinks that Dream came to the conclusion that this was Ranboo.

"Hey. Ranboo? Are you here?" Walking around slowly, Dream inspected the kitchen to see if he was somewhere in there—in the cupboards, cabinets, drawers, he really didn't know what this boy was capable of—before moving onto the rest of the house. In hushed whispers, Dream called out, "Ranboo? Raaaanboooooo. Hey, I'm sorry for looking at you. I didn't mean to. I promise I won't look as long as you make your presence known."

The silence surrounding him dragged on for a while—a yawn escaping Dream and making him debate whether it was worth returning to bed or sticking it out for a little longer—until the shocking sound of something behind him made him jump.

"⊑⟒⌰⌰⍜?"

Fighting the urge to turn around, Dream turned his head ever so slightly and asked, "Is that you, Ranboo?"

"⊬⟒⌇. ⏃⍀⟒ ⊬⍜⎍ ⎅⍀⟒⏃⋔?"

"Nice to meet you." Dream looked to his left and right, making sure to not turn around completely, before gesturing to the couch in the living room. "Would you like to take a seat? I...don't know where you are right now but I'm sure the couch is more comfortable than wherever you are."

He received no response from Ranboo. Instead, there was the same jarring noise he had heard earlier in the kitchen and taking the chance to see if he was there or not, Dream looked behind himself to find emptiness. Ranboo was gone.

"Ranboo? Where did you go?"

"⟟'⋔ ⍜⎐⟒⍀ ⊑⟒⍀⟒."

Following his voice, Dream looked to his couch on the right and saw the pale skin of Ranboo. Quickly shying away, he slowly made his way over and sat on the far right side of the couch away from him. He was at a loss on what to say for a moment, fumbling with his hands as he tried to put together what just happened with Ranboo's disappearance and re-appearance when he was interrupted by the person in question. 

"⌇⍜, ⎍⋔...⊑⍜⍙ ⏃⍀⟒ ⊬⍜⎍?"

"S-sorry, I don't understand." A rush of heat reached the tip of his ears as he realised he had been asking Ranboo questions without actually understanding what he was saying. "Do, do you understand English? Do you know how to speak English?"

There was some shifting beside him before he got a response although it came in a form Dream didn't expect. The scritch-scratch of pencil on paper in the near-dead, silent night was almost foreign to Dream, the sound nearly putting him to sleep until he was jolted awake by a hand tapping his shoulder. Instinctively, he turned to see who and was shocked to find two eyes—one green, one red—staring back at him with a slight smile beneath them. As quickly as they had exchanged looks, Ranboo shoved the book he had been writing in towards Dream and returned to sitting on the opposite side of the couch, head down and hands in lap. Doing the same, Dream focussed his attention to the book in his hands and read the page opened to him:

_Hello. My name is Ranboo._   
_I can write and know some English but can not speak._

"Ah...well, nice to meet you, Ranboo. My name is Dream."

Unsure on how to continue the conversation, Dream handed back Ranboo's book and listened to him writing in it again. The book landed in his lap soon enough and he continued from where he left off on the same page.

_Nice to meet you Dream. How are you?_

"I'm good. A bit tired, but good. How are you?"

_I am good also. Sorry for waking you._

"Don't worry about it. Bad and Skeppy have done it to me multiple times, so you're fine."

_Okay._

"....So, what were you doing in my kitchen? I saw you looking in my cabinet where the food is. Did you get hungry?"

_No. Bad asked me to get him a_

Ranboo sat for a moment—the book placed between both him and Dream so that the latter was able to read while he wrote—as he tried to remember what it was Bad asked him to get. When the word failed to come to mind, Ranboo continued to the next line and said:

_Bad asked me to come._

"He did?" The boy responded with an affirmative hum or what could be considered a hum (to Dream, it sounded more like a gurgle). "Trust Bad to think of lucrative ways for getting people to meet."

_I don't understand._

"I mean he has a silly way of getting people together. You remember how he tried to get us to meet a few hours ago but then I kept looking at you and you disappeared?"

_Yes. Sorry for that too._

"That's okay. It's not your fault. I didn't know you disliked that sort of thing."

The boy nodded then wrote:

 _It makes me_ _umcon_ _uncof umcomfr feel weird._

"Uncomfortable?" Another affirmed gurgle from the boy. "Here, do you mind?" he asked, gesturing to the pencil in Ranboo's hand. Passing the pencil to Dream, Ranboo watched as he wrote the word 'uncomfortable' into his book, and upon being given back his pencil he wrote:

_Thank you._

"You're welcome. It is a big word to spell, isn't it?"

_It is._

Dream smiled at the book, unaware of the fact that Ranboo was stealing looks at him until he wrote in his book:

_Can you look at me?_

"Huh? Look at you?" He waited for the affirmed or negative gurgle but heard nothing. "But I thought it made you uncomfortable when someone looks at you?"

_It does. But I want you to look. You are wearing a mask._   
_Don't feel much._

"You don't feel much?" As he asked this question, Dream turned his head to meet Ranboo's gaze and was met once again with his heterochrome eyes. "Do you mean my gaze? My stare? You're not aware of it?"

Ranboo didn't respond immediately. He seemed lost in his thoughts as he stared at Dream, unblinking. Dream let him be seeing as this was quite possibly the first time Ranboo has ever properly looked a human in the face. Well, with a mask on anyway.

An insurmountable age seemed to pass by between them—Dream, himself, growing to be uncomfortable with how intense Ranboo stared at him—until they finally broke eye contact and receded to their respected sides of the couch. Questions pooled in Dream's head as he watched Ranboo gather his book into his lap and start writing, occasional pauses between words he struggled to think of. 

When he was done, Ranboo read over his work then handed the book to Dream with a wide smile on his face. "⏁⊑⏃⋏☍ ⊬⍜⎍."

"Um, thank you." Nervously laughing, Dream smiled at Ranboo before reading what he wrote.

_Thank you Dream. It was the first time I got to look at someone like that. It was nice._   
_I did not feel uncomfortable. I think your mask was helpful. So thank you._

He didn't notice, but the shaky smile he had worn before slowly grew into a bigger one with each word he read. Like Ranboo said, his English was simple but knowing that he put so much thought into this, how much it meant to him and seeing the smile on his own face made Dream really happy.

After all, he wanted to help people achieve their dreams, didn't he?

"Hey, Ranboo." Dream let out a small laugh when he realised Ranboo hadn't stopped staring at him since giving him the book, passing it back for when he was ready to write his answer to his question. "Do you have a dream? Something you want to come true or something you want to happen? To have, maybe?"

After little to no thought, Ranboo began scribbling in his book before handing it over. Although he couldn't really tell from one side, Dream could see the obvious blush on Ranboo's white skin and was curious as to what he had written in the book.

But what he saw wasn't an explanation of his dreams. Rather it was a drawing.

"An....ice cream stand? You want to sell ice cream to people?"

Ranboo nodded, his smile as big as the one he drew and wrote beneath the drawing:

_I never had ice cream before. Before I meet Bad I see people eating it. They look happy.  
I want to do same but can not._

"Is the reason why you can't do it is because you're shy and can't look at people?" After he nodded, Dream reached a hand over and tentatively gave Ranboo a pat on the shoulder. "That's okay. You were fine with me, weren't you?"

_I was with mask on._

"That's alright! We can work on it together, can't we? I can help you get more used to people. So can Bad and Skeppy! You live with them, don't you?" Ranboo's eyes shone with hope at Dream's suggestion, nodding his head in agreement. "Then it's settled! We'll help you achieve your dream in owning an ice cream shop!"

"⏁⊑⏃⋏☍ ⊬⍜⎍!" Ranboo exclaimed, temporarily confusing Dream who eventually assumed he was thanking him. 

Evidently happy with how things turned out, Ranboo began scrawling something down in his book although whatever he wrote wasn't visible to Dream as he clutched it close to his chest. With a thump, he closed his book and pocketed it away—away, where? It was unbeknownst to Dream as he simply watched him put it to the side only for it to disappear—before waving a hand to Dream.

"Hm? Are you leaving?"

"⊬⟒⌇."

"I'll take that as a yes?" Seeing Ranboo nod, Dream stood up and held a hand out. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Ranboo. I hope to see you again soon!"

Looking curiously at his hand, Ranboo took it and followed Dream's motion. With a final smile, he said, "⋔⟒ ⏁⍜⍜! ☌⍜⍜⎅⏚⊬⟒!"

"Yeah, uhm—!" 

He wasn't given the chance to say goodbye when Ranboo suddenly disappeared, presumably underground where Bad and Skeppy were. Shaking his head, Dream chuckled to himself at the boy's behaviour before returning to his room. He was certainly an interesting character with quite the ambitious goal and Dream was more than ready to help him with it. So much so that as soon as he entered his bedroom he got to work on making a black and white Dream doll.

"I see you have become good friends with Ranboo."

"AGH! Ow..." Dream sucked on his pricked finger, turning to see an apologetic Bad sitting on his bed. "Bad, what're you doing awake? Shouldn't you be with Skeppy and Ranboo?"

"I was but then Ranboo came back and told me all about his visit with you. He was really happy!"

"That's good. I was afraid our conversation might've been a bit boring and tedious since he had to write in his book to answer."

"Really?" Bad asked, eyes wide in surprise. "He showed you his book?"

"Yeah. Didn't he show you?"

"No, I usually just talk to him." This time it was Dream's turn to look shocked in Bad's direction as he continued to explain, "I understand and can communicate in his language. One of the perks of living for a long time and meeting different people, am I right?"

His cheeky smile didn't go unnoticed as Dream directed his full attention on Bad who squirmed beneath his gaze. "I didn't get the chance to ask Ranboo while he was here, but maybe you can help."

"Help? Sure! In what way can I help?"

Rubbing at his eyes, Dream prepared himself for what would be another sleepless night and began with a question that's been on his mind since first meeting the boy. "What is Ranboo?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I'm sorry for the wait and I apologise as well for the drawing XD
> 
> Before I reveal the translations, I would like to bring people's attention to character bios! Over on Wattpad, I've released a chapter that contains each of the characters known so far and some information about them (very little information. Their name, age, profession and dream). If people are interested, feel free to go over to my fic on Wattpad under the same username @squiccoon
> 
> However, if you'd rather view the bios here, tell me! I'll be more than happy to post them here. I chose to do it with Wattpad first because I wasn't sure whether people would want to see them here (yeah lame reason, I know XD) but if you are interested, do tell me!  
> It'll be a chapter that'll get updated with each new character and new development in the story as well as whatever people request to know about a character(s), so yeah! :D
> 
> Once again, thank you for being patient and for reading this far. I hope you enjoy the next chapter and who comes next! (it's a mystery even to me right now on who'll be visiting the stand next XD)
> 
> Translations:  
> ⊑⟒⌰⌰⍜? = Hello?  
> ⊬⟒⌇. ⏃⍀⟒ ⊬⍜⎍ ⎅⍀⟒⏃⋔? = Yes. Are you Dream?  
> ⟟'⋔ ⍜⎐⟒⍀ ⊑⟒⍀⟒. = I'm over here.  
> ⌇⍜, ⎍⋔...⊑⍜⍙ ⏃⍀⟒ ⊬⍜⎍? = So, um...how are you?  
> ⏁⊑⏃⋏☍ ⊬⍜⎍. = Thank you.  
> ⊬⟒⌇. = Yes.  
> ⋔⟒ ⏁⍜⍜! ☌⍜⍜⎅⏚⊬⟒! = Me too! Goodbye!


End file.
